Airplane Parachutes

BRS parachutes have saved about 250 lives to this day. One parachute for a 500 kg airplane costs about 4.500 $. The following video tells how it works.

BRS Parachute System

Here is one story about how the parachute saved four lives.


Technical Details

The rocket launch tube and the handles

The canister assembly

The parachute is attached to the airframe at three hard points. The harness and the parachute is packed into the canister and the rocket is installed next to it. The rocket and the canister are usually somewhere inside the fuselage. Here are some pictures about the installation.

Different types of harness terminations

BRS-1050 Canister Installation in Apollo Delta Jet Trike

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High G Simulators

Here is some information about high G simulators from USA. The Blue Angels tested the ATFS-400 Phoenix and their test video tells most of it. At some points it is a bit choppy but otherwise it is the best next to the real F-18C fighter aircraft.

Blue Angels Visit NASTAR Center

The most difficult region for any centrifuge type high G simulator must be the region around zero G. When flying it is easy to produce zero G (see the picture below).

Flying zero G

With a centrifuge the region between +1 and -1 G is impossible. As soon as the centrifuge turns the gondola upside down there will be -1 G without any smooth transition from  +1 G. The only way to produce zero G for small time periods is to have such a gondola that can be dropped to a free fall. I am assuming that the gryphon (GL-6000) concept could address this issue by dropping the cockpit? But even with that it is only possible for small time periods (see the video for GL-6000 below).

GL-6000 Gryphon Concept Render

To make a long period zero G you would need a very high drop tower.

Somebody on Drop Zone

Of course you could put a centrifuge in a drop tower. But I don't know if that is done anywhere in that scale .

Drop Centrifuge Type High G Simulator

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ATFS 400

"A revolutionary new technology called the Authentic Tactical Flight Simulator (Model ATFS 400) developed by Environmental Tectonics Corporation now offers pilots a ground-based simulator that provides more realistic tactical air combat experience at a much lower cost per event without the risk of airborne training. Deploying the new technology and transferring even a small fraction of airborne training to the ATFS 400 will save hundreds of millions of tax dollars, eliminate the ever-present risk of live combat maneuvering practice engagement - and save millions of gallons of scarce fuel."

ATFS-400 - Royal Malaysian Air Force

NASTAR Tactical Fighter Training Simulator

ATFS-400 Phoenix

GYROLAB GL-4000

"The GL-4000 is a high-fidelity, single seat interactive motion platform providing users with 360 degrees of continuous and simultaneous motion in 4 axes of motion (planetary, pitch, roll and yaw). Up to 6 Gs of motion stimuli are generated in the planetary axis. The GL-4000 can be used for flight training or research applications."

GL-4000

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The same simulator is also used to train space flight.

NASTAR Launch featuring Buzz Aldrin, Anousheh Ansari, and Greg Olsen

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