Come fly with me, let’s float down to Peru ..

 

1. A safety parachute for the airplane itself! What a great idea!! How big a ‘chute will be needed for those giant Airbus 380s that keep blowing up their engines??

   Posted by Drew458       11/29/2010  at  04:20 PM  



2. Probably the size of Rhode Island.
   I’m happy to see it works. I have read about this system. It’s too bad they couldn’t/didn’t use them on some of the irreplaceable warbirds that have gone down in the past…
   
   Just a comment..
   Bill

   Posted by Doctor DETH       11/29/2010  at  08:26 PM  



3. The big problem with these modern aerobatic competition airplanes is the modern carbon fiber spars, which are much stronger and lighter than the old metal ones.  But when they do fail, they fail explosively.  Older planes that would noticeably bend a wingtip during ultra-high-G loads and sometimes give the pilots the chance to get back now just blow apart with no warning when they finally go.

   (I fly R/C planes; we use the same construction techniques and have the same problem)

   The ballistic parachutes have been a real boon to the small plane pilots in the past decade.  Lots of them have been saved and its far safer to deploy one from the plane rather than have the pilot try to bail out.  And yes, you couldn’t use them one larger airliners as they’d be far too large and heavy to put on a plane that size.

   Posted by TimO       11/30/2010  at  09:01 AM  

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