Design, Development & Flight Testing Of The U.S. Army 4200 sq ft Parafoil Recovery SystemThe purpose of this paper is to describe the design, development and flight testing of the U.S. Army 4200 ft(sup 2) parafoil recovery system built under NASA Contract NAS9-00076. The 4200 ft(sup 2) parafoil described herein was a potential candidate to fulfill the U.S. Army requirement for a 10,000 lb useable payload precision guided recovery system. Design heritage as well as specific features, like lower surface inlets, confluence fitting, upper surface energy modulator design, deployment bag design and 60 ft diameter Ringslot drogue will be discussed. Initial flight test results, ground testing of various components to verify design margin and configuration changes will also be discussed. The 4200 ft(sup 2) parafoil recovery system completed three flight tests during 2003 at payload weights of over 15,000 lbs.
Document ID
20070012413
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Bennett, Thomas W. (Pioneer Aerospace Corp. South Windsor, CT, United States)
Fox, Roy (Fox Parachute Services Belleville, WY, United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2007
Subject Category
Aircraft Design, Testing And Performance
Meeting Information
Meeting: 18th AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technology Conference and Seminar
Location: Munich
Country: Germany
Start Date: May 23, 2005
End Date: May 26, 2005
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics