Autonomously guided Ram-air parachute

Citation

(2009), "Autonomously guided Ram-air parachute", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 81 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2009.12781aaf.005

Autonomously guided Ram-air parachute

Article Type: Mini features From: Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal, Volume 81, Issue 1

Airborne systems, a major company in parachute design and manufacturing, announced recently that they had successfully completed a test drop of a precision guided cargo delivery system capable of carrying 42,000 pounds under a single ram-air parachute. The new system, called the GigaFly, was successfully deployed from a C-130 aircraft at 15,000 ft carrying a 33,000 lb load. The system landed fully autonomously at a gentle 14 ft/s rate-of-descent less than 275 m from the intended point of impact.

GigaFly is a 10,400 ft² Ram-air parachute, also known as a parafoil, with a wingspan of 195 ft it is nearly as wide as the wings on a Boeing 747 (211 ft). Designed for airdrop at altitudes as high as 25,000 ft, GigaFly guides itself to a designated point on the ground from up to 22 km away using its specially designed on board GPS guidance unit and software.

MegaFly (TM), a similar system featured on the History Channel television series “Modern Marvels” and successfully dropped over 30 times, is capable of carrying 30,000 lbs. “The demand for an accurate heavy payload aerial delivery system led the army to develop this kind of new technology”, said Brian Bagdonovich, Program Manager, for the US Army Natick Soldier RDE Center. “The 42K parafoil has the potential to provide the Army with high-altitude precision airdrop capability for bulk supply, equipment and vehicles within the existing capability range of low velocity aerial delivery systems”.

The GigaFly adds to the company’s current range of precision delivery equipment which is now capable of dropping from 100 to 42,000 lbs. Airborne systems’ entire family of JPADS platforms uses common hardware and software architecture to ensure maximum interoperability and minimum training and logistics burden in theater. The US Army selected airborne systems’ FireFly(TM) for their 2K (2,000 lb) platform and DragonFly for their standard 10K (10,000 lb) JPADS platform. The GigaFly test was conducted as part of a US Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center Development Program. According to the program manager, “GigaFly is the largest ram-air ever to be deployed successfully and without the use of pyrotechnics. What has been accomplished here both technically and physically is remarkable”.