Low altitude high speed cargo parachute system development: A status report

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:5967772

Sundberg, W D; Alsbrooks, T H; Ronquillo, K L ^[1]; Sadeck, J E; Lee, C K ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
2. Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center, MA (USA)

A Low Altitude High Speed Cargo (LAHSC) parachute is being developed for deployment at velocities up to 250 knots at 300 ft altitude. The LAHSC parachute will decelerate and turnover a load to a 40 to 60 ft/sec vertical velocity at first vertical at approximately 30 ft AGL. The acceleration limit is 5 g's. Main chute cargo extraction will be necessary. A single parachute will be utilized for a 7500 lb load, and clusters will be used for larger loads. The 64-gore, 70-ft-dia parachute has a ring-slot/solid construction with a flare at the skirt to aid the inflation. This paper describes the parachute, the design process and testing to date. Model parachutes have been tested in wind tunnels and in free flight. A single full-scale parachute has been tested at low speeds with conventional load extraction, and with a vertical trajectory at deployment. 5 refs., 18 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOD; Department of Defense, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5967772
• Report Number(s): SAND-90-2179C; CONF-9104171-8; AIAA-91-0880; ON: TI91009981
• Resource Relation: Conference: 11. AIAA aerodynamic decelerator systems technology conference, San Diego, CA (USA), 9-11 Apr 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
PARACHUTES
DESIGN
PERFORMANCE TESTING
ACCELERATION
AIR TRANSPORT
AIRCRAFT
ALTITUDE
CARGO
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
MILITARY EQUIPMENT
VELOCITY
WEIGHT
WIND TUNNELS
EQUIPMENT
TESTING
TRANSPORT
TUNNELS
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
450000* - Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense