Method and apparatus for reducing the speed of a load which is dropping on a parachute

摘要

A method and an apparatus for reducing the rate of fall of a load which is dropping on a parachute, shortly before the load touches the ground. For sensitive payloads which fall to the ground at high speed on a parachute, the landing shock on touching the ground or else the rate of fall shortly before touching the ground must be greatly reduced in order to prevent damage to the payload resulting from excessively high deceleration forces. In order to reduce the rate of fall, a double flywheel is installed between the parachute and the payload, part of the supporting rope (cable) to the parachute being wound up on the shaft of the double flywheel and the payload being suspended under the double flywheel in the form of a gondola, such that it can rotate. On approaching the ground, an additional connecting rope between the parachute and the double flywheel is cut, so that the supporting rope can be unwound and the double flywheel thus caused to rotate. When the supporting rope has completely unwound, a translational movement reversal occurs during which the double flywheel, with the payload, is moved relatively towards the parachute. If the parameters of the apparatus (moment of inertia, wound-up rope length before cutting, etc.) are selected in such a manner that the relative speed between the double flywheel and the payload with respect to the parachute is approximately equal to the rate of fall of the parachute after the translational movement reversal, the resultant rate of fall of the ... Original abstract incomplete.