January 14 1910 — There’s a big aviation meet going on in LA and Herriman offers up some thoughts on the subject. Regarding the first panel, I guess Herriman wasn’t aware that parachutes had already been around for centuries. Granted, he has introduced a new wrinkle making it into a skirt — well, let’s leave the fellow some dignity and call it a kilt.
There’s a good article in Wikipedia about the 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet. It was apparently a major event.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1910_Los_Angeles_International_Air_Meet_at_Dominguez_Field