FASTWING CL flight tests with a high-glide ram-air parachute for 6000kg payloads.

Abstract

A EU funded cooperation, Autoflug, Cimsa, Dutch Space, National Aerospace Laboratory NLR, DLR, EADS-CESA, CFDn and the Technion University participated in the FASTWing CL project to investigate the application of a 300m 2 high-glide parafoil for payloads up to 6,000 kg. The project acronym FASTWing CL stands for Folding, Adaptive, Steerable Textile Wing Structure for Capital Loads. The ram-air parachute is flight-tested in the project. The deployment is tested with a pilot chute, though the canopy was originally designed for a deployment with a stabilization chute. A dedicated test vehicle was designed and built for the tests to serve as payload and provide fixation for the autonomous guidance unit. The in-flight performance of the flight unit is determined with remote controlled maneuvers during drop tests. This performance was the input for the design of the autopilot algorithms. The flight tests ended with a fully autonomous drop including a successful flare maneuver which was automatically initiated. In this paper the flight experience with the main high-glide ram-air parachute and the flight unit configuration are described, as well as the results of the flight tests.

Aerodynamic Analysis of Large Aspect Ratio Parafoil

“…In Figure 6, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) In the range from -10° to 15°, the derivative of the pitch moment coefficient to the angle of attack is negative, which indicates that the parafoil is in a longitudinal static equilibrium state at this stage.…”

“…Large aspect ratio parafoils usually refer to ram-air parafoils more than 3.5, which are widely used in high-mobility powered parafoils. For earth reentry mission [1][2][3] it would be advisable to exploit a parafoil in the last stage of the aerodynamic decelerator system instead of a near reticular splash-down with ballistic parachute. A large aspect ratio parafoil has a lower gliding angle, its landing vertical speed is small, the impact is low, and it has a higher carrying capacity.…”