4 ms·

Any idea what the minimum height for the parachute to be effective as a life saving device?

• jeffbee 4y ago
  The Cirrus SR22 needs ~1000ft above ground to effectively deploy the airframe parachute in a spin.
• nradov 4y ago
  Minimum effective altitude for parachutes on light aircraft is about 400 ft agl, but the exact number varies depending on the flight regime. For powered lift aircraft there is likely a small "dead zone" in the flight envelope: too high to survive a crash, too low for the parachute to be effective. This may or may not be acceptable depending on mission risk tolerance and the reliability of other systems. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/march/flight-training-magazine/how-it-works-airframe-parachute https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/march/flig...
  • GordonS 4y ago
    > too high to survive a crash, too low for the parachute to be effective This is probably a silly question, but couldn't the pilot just wait until the plane dropped below the dead zone before deploying the parachute?
    • Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
      The lower the craft drops, the deader the zone.
    • chipsa 4y ago
      You're thinking about the dead zone in the wrong way: There's a height X where you can drop the aircraft and it'll absorb all the forces to have the people live. There's a height Y where the parachute has enough time to deploy and bring the aircraft to terminal velocity. If X is less than Y, there's a height where there's nothing to save you. Options to resolve this are: make X higher by making the structure able to absorb more energy, or make Y lower by having it deploy faster.