Autonomous Precision Delivery of 42,000 Pounds (19,000 kg) Under One Parachute

Abstract

This paper reviews the latest technological advancements and achievements in large ramair parachute development with a focus on the advantages provided by modular design and large ram-air parachute fault tolerance. The State of the art of autonomously guided large ram-air parafoil technology has been rapidly advanced. With these advancements it is now feasible to recover "high end" cargo such as rocket boosters by a single ram-air parachute rather than a cluster of conventional ballistic parachutes. A systems engineering approach, integrating robustly designed airborne guidance hardware, flight software, and ram air parachute technology combined with a robust flight test program has resulted in the development of a precision guided ram-air parachute delivery system that is capable of delivering large payloads precisely, softly and safely.

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Commercial Earth-to-Orbit (ETO) Passenger Vehicle

“…Mass and volume info is included in Table 4.6. [40] As a point of comparison, preliminary sizing was performed for a conventional clustered ringsail parachute system. To achieve the same descent rate as the parafoil would require a cluster of six 233-ft parachutes.…”

On the Benefits of In-Flight System Identification for Autonomous Airdrop Systems

“…Sensor noise and bias are added to the simulation data that is fed into the inflight estimation algorithm to simulate low-cost, commercially available sensors. Results are generated for two exemplar systems, namely, a microparafoil flight tested by Slegers et al [14] and the Airborne Systems 30k Megafly [15]. These systems have a total weight of approximately 5 and 30,000 lb, respectively.…”