Abstract
Reduction of parachute landing impact velocity by retraction has important potential benefits for aerial delivery, recovery and escape systems. “Softlanding” can reduce or eliminate impact attenuation materials, which is of particular interest to the Army for quicker rigging of aerial-delivery cargo. Softlanding can also be used to design recovery systems with smaller main parachutes, accruing the benefits of lighter weight, softer opening and faster maximum deployment airspeed. This paper discusses the development of a pneumatic muscle softlanding retractor for Army cargo units of up to 20,000 pounds. Pneumatic muscles are described in a previous paper by the authors 1 . This paper reports progress in the areas of multi-body simulation, gas generator development, high temperature flexible matrices, ground testing and a parachute drop test with 15,000 pounds suspended weight.
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