Engineering & Research

From October 1991 to December 1996, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., conducted a research program known as the Spacecraft Autoland Project to determine the feasibility of the autonomous recovery of a spacecraft using a ram-air parafoil system for the final stages of flight, including a precision landing.

This web page deals with the topic of parachutes and their use as a recovery device for amateur rockets.

" ... For the first testing prototype, I decided that rather than use the ram-air square parachute design favored by sky divers and most automated designs, I would try a hexagonal 'parasheet' similar to what is used in model rocketry."

The firm "Parachute & Paraglider Design" was created in 1993 in a joint venture with Research and Production Enterprise along with "star" professional test-jumpers, designers and athletes, such as Sergey Ignatius, Ludmila Kalabukhova, Sergey Kalabukhov, Vladimir Kotov, and Dmitriy Mikhaylenko.

This page is maintained by Martin Herker, a retired physics teacher interested in egress and ejection systems.