September 25, 2008

Autonomous Parachute Drop

Some time ago, I had proposed using high performance ram wing parachutes to do precision guided drops of equipment and material. The basic idea is that the aircraft don't like to fly low (usually because they are getting shot at), but if they drop the cargo from high up it tends to drift with the wind and land far from the intended site. This was demonstrated in a rather memorable scene from the movie "A Bridge Too Far," in which a paratrooper is killed rescuing an airdropped canister which turns out to be full of berets.

Which is why this press release announcing the successful test drop of a 30000 lb payload using an autonomously guided ram wing parachute caught my attention.

The new system, called the GigaFly, was successfully deployed from a C-130 aircraft at 15,000 feet carrying a 33,000 lb load. The system landed fully autonomously at a gentle 14 feet per second rate-of-descent less than 275-m from the intended point of impact.

GigaFly is a 10,400 square foot ram-air parachute, also known as a parafoil, with a wingspan of 195 feet it is nearly as wide as the wings on a Boeing 747 (211-ft). Designed for airdrop at altitudes as high as 25,000 feet, GigaFly guides itself to a designated point on the ground from up to 22 kilometers away using its specially designed on board GPS guidance unit and software.

Posted by elkaim at 10:05 PM