Friday, March 20, 2009

Parachute Detachment Mechanism

In chatting to Mat G. this week, he described how his rocket got stuck in a tree flying one of the computers. I thought that the FC should at least be able to try to help in such a situation. Snagging a parachute on trees is a very common problem, especially when the wind carries the rocket beyond the designated range.

We put together a Parachute Detachment Mechanism prototype (DetMech) that allows the rocket to automatically let go of the parachute cord after a predetermined time.

The full details of the mechanism are available here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/howitworks_3.htm

We want to test fly it next to see how the clamp holds up under high speed deploys. ... yup just another excuse to fly more rockets. :)


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1 comment:

  1. Hi George

    That is a great idea :)!!! i have had that problem many times :( !!!

    ReplyDelete