[AR] Re: Up aerospace Adept SR-1 video...
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2018 13:32:05 -0500 (EST)
On Mon, 17 Dec 2018, Anthony Cesaroni wrote:
...If you're asking what type of parachute we use for supersonic
deployment, it's a Kevlar hemisflow, ribbon drogue. They were originally
designed to retard nukes dropped above Mach 2...
A number of years ago, there was a feature article in Scientific American
about supersonic parachutes, with heavy emphasis on deployment at low
altitude in thick air. I was amused to note that it never quite got
around to mentioning why you would want to do this, although there were a
few hints if you looked carefully.
(Even at high altitude, it's hard for the aircraft that just dropped a
hydrogen bomb to get far enough away before a free-fall bomb reaches the
ground. So the bombs acquired parachutes. When the bombers moved down to
very low altitude, the problem got much worse -- no way the plane could
get clear unless the bomb decelerates *and lands* by parachute, sits
there for a moment, and *then* detonates.)
Henry
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