Design and performance of a parachute for the recovery of a 760-lb payload

Abstract

A 26-ft-diameter ribbon parachute deployed using a pilot parachute system has been developed at Sandia National Laboratories for the recovery of a 760-lb payload released at subsonic and transonic speeds. The wide range of deployment dynamic pressures led to the design, utilizing wind tunnel testing and computer simulation, of a unique pilot parachute system verified in full-scale flight tests. Performance data from 20 full-scale flight tests were used to evaluate system performance and structural validity. The concical ribbon parachute design chosen for this development effort follows the practice of previous Sandia National Laboratory parachute development programs for high performance airdropped payloads. The design process for this parachute system included a tradeoff study to evaluate and compare the performance between an equivalent drag area 26-foot-diameter single parachute system and a cluster system of three 14-ft-diameter parachutes. The results showed a small advantage for the cluster system in inflation and initial deceleration characteristics. However, the higher cost, higher weight, greater packing complexity and greater risk involved in the development of the cluster system outweighed the performance advantages and led to the choice of the 26-ft-diameter parachute as the baseline design for the development. This paper describes the design and performance of themore » 26-ft-diameter parachute which was chosen for the recovery of a 760-lb payload. The results of 20 full-scale flight test of this parachute system are summarized. 8 refs., 13 figs., 2 tabs.« less