1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,700 The sight of small aircraft flying around our skies is a familiar one to most of us. 2 00:00:08,700 --> 00:00:15,040 These small general aviation or GA planes are favorites of private pilots, small businesses 3 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:20,520 and flight schools because of their relative low cost and the freedom they provide. 4 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:25,880 Although these aircraft are very safe, about 1,600 of them are involved in accidents every 5 00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:29,840 year and quite often these accidents can be fatal. 6 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:35,440 In an effort to prevent many of these accidents from becoming fatal, NASA has funded an innovative 7 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:41,600 program which uses a ballistic parachute mounted on the plane, which when deployed can actually 8 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:45,680 save the plane and the passengers from a catastrophic accident. 9 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:50,840 I spoke with Lisa Jones at NASA Langley Research Center to find out more. 10 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:52,080 Parachute recovery systems are not new. 11 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:56,200 They've been used to return our astronauts from the moon, the Apollo program for instance. 12 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:00,360 They've been applied to the military aircraft such as the F-11 Crew Escape Module. 13 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:02,760 It floats down on a parachute recovery system. 14 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:07,800 Now they're being applied to general aviation aircraft and in the structural designs, this 15 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:12,480 is a good way to save money and weight because you can actually design a structure to support 16 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:14,000 the parachute system. 17 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,040 The parachute works like this. 18 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,960 During an emergency event, if the pilot feels that he's about to lose control of the aircraft 19 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:26,480 or has lost control, he must turn off the engine and simply pull firmly on the parachute 20 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:29,240 release handle located above his head. 21 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:34,080 The parachute, which is propelled by a solid fuel rocket motor, is released from a special 22 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:36,800 opening on top of the fuselage. 23 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:42,040 Three Kevlar straps connect the parachute to the airframe and help slow the aircraft, 24 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:49,040 guiding it through a level descent. 25 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:56,520 Although the parachute system already has 155 saves with ultralight aircraft, the first 26 00:01:56,520 --> 00:02:01,960 save in a general aviation plane came in October of 2002 with the aircraft suffering little 27 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:06,360 damage and the pilot walking away from the crash with no injuries at all. 28 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:11,840 So Lisa, is this parachute system just for new aircraft or can it be retrofitted on older 29 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:12,840 planes? 30 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:17,120 The parachute system design can be incorporated into older aircraft designs. 31 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:21,520 It just would have to do some modifications to the structure, make sure that the structure 32 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:27,680 can handle the loads the system puts on the airframe and also be certified for it. 33 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:32,040 Lisa, what are some situations where a pilot would need to use this device? 34 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:36,360 As a pilot can tell you, there's many times when things will go bad quickly when flying. 35 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,680 So there are many different scenarios where this system may be deployed. 36 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:45,680 Some situations where a parachute recovery system could be used are loss of control of 37 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:51,280 the aircraft due to icing, engine failure and airframe structural failure. 38 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:57,840 One of the most common causes of general aviation aircraft accidents is pilot disorientation. 39 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:04,000 Many pilots are only rated to operate an aircraft under visual flight rules or VFR. 40 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:09,840 But in order to fly in bad weather, a pilot should also be able to fly under IFR or instrument 41 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:10,840 flight rules. 42 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:15,800 If a visual flight rules rated pilot encounters weather where he can't see visual landmarks 43 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:20,280 outside the plane, then spatial disorientation can occur. 44 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:25,080 When this happens, the pilot literally cannot determine if his plane is in level flight 45 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:27,760 or if it's turning or banking. 46 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:32,880 Very frequently, the VFR pilot will rely on his instincts rather than his instruments 47 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:36,160 which can lead to a catastrophic outcome. 48 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:40,600 With the parachute recovery system on board, no matter what the situation, the pilot has 49 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:46,640 one last best option to save not only the aircraft, but most importantly, the lives 50 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:48,280 of everyone on board. 51 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,040 I know this is being used for general aviation aircraft, but is there a chance that it could 52 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:53,720 be used on larger planes? 53 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:58,640 I think it can be applied to some of the business jets where you're talking about 10, 12, 14 54 00:03:58,640 --> 00:03:59,640 passenger perhaps. 55 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:03,360 That would have to be really investigated closely. 56 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,520 But for application to a transport, you're not going to see that. 57 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:12,080 The structural requirements for the aircraft would be enormous to handle that as well as 58 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:16,960 the design characteristics for the chute itself to be able to take the energy of the large 59 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:17,960 transport. 60 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:22,520 So you're not going to be able to use this efficiently on anything of much size greater 61 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:24,520 than a general aviation aircraft. 62 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:27,800 So Lisa, why is NASA working on this type of project? 63 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:32,640 NASA has a program called the Aviation Safety Program, and in that we're looking at different 64 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,720 types of things to improve safety everywhere. 65 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:38,840 Some of that in the early part of the program was focused on general aviation. 66 00:04:38,840 --> 00:04:44,000 There are 1,000 lives a year lost to general aviation accidents, and this type of system 67 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:48,080 can really improve those numbers and hopefully get those down where we see a lot more people 68 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:48,960 walking away from accidents.