Saltar navegación

Activa JavaScript para disfrutar de los vídeos de la Mediateca.

Destination Tomorrow - DT10 - Plane Parachutes

Ajuste de pantalla

El ajuste de pantalla se aprecia al ver el vídeo en pantalla completa. Elige la presentación que más te guste:

Subido el 28 de mayo de 2007 por EducaMadrid

622 visualizaciones

NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment about NASA's development of a parachute recovery system for small general aviation planes.

Más información Transcripción

Descargar la transcripción

The sight of small aircraft flying around our skies is a familiar one to most of us. 00:00:00
These small general aviation or GA planes are favorites of private pilots, small businesses 00:00:08
and flight schools because of their relative low cost and the freedom they provide. 00:00:15
Although these aircraft are very safe, about 1,600 of them are involved in accidents every 00:00:20
year and quite often these accidents can be fatal. 00:00:25
In an effort to prevent many of these accidents from becoming fatal, NASA has funded an innovative 00:00:29
program which uses a ballistic parachute mounted on the plane, which when deployed can actually 00:00:35
save the plane and the passengers from a catastrophic accident. 00:00:41
I spoke with Lisa Jones at NASA Langley Research Center to find out more. 00:00:45
Parachute recovery systems are not new. 00:00:50
They've been used to return our astronauts from the moon, the Apollo program for instance. 00:00:52
They've been applied to the military aircraft such as the F-11 Crew Escape Module. 00:00:56
It floats down on a parachute recovery system. 00:01:00
Now they're being applied to general aviation aircraft and in the structural designs, this 00:01:02
is a good way to save money and weight because you can actually design a structure to support 00:01:07
the parachute system. 00:01:12
The parachute works like this. 00:01:14
During an emergency event, if the pilot feels that he's about to lose control of the aircraft 00:01:16
or has lost control, he must turn off the engine and simply pull firmly on the parachute 00:01:20
release handle located above his head. 00:01:26
The parachute, which is propelled by a solid fuel rocket motor, is released from a special 00:01:29
opening on top of the fuselage. 00:01:34
Three Kevlar straps connect the parachute to the airframe and help slow the aircraft, 00:01:36
guiding it through a level descent. 00:01:42
Although the parachute system already has 155 saves with ultralight aircraft, the first 00:01:50
save in a general aviation plane came in October of 2002 with the aircraft suffering little 00:01:56
damage and the pilot walking away from the crash with no injuries at all. 00:02:01
So Lisa, is this parachute system just for new aircraft or can it be retrofitted on older 00:02:06
planes? 00:02:11
The parachute system design can be incorporated into older aircraft designs. 00:02:12
It just would have to do some modifications to the structure, make sure that the structure 00:02:17
can handle the loads the system puts on the airframe and also be certified for it. 00:02:21
Lisa, what are some situations where a pilot would need to use this device? 00:02:27
As a pilot can tell you, there's many times when things will go bad quickly when flying. 00:02:32
So there are many different scenarios where this system may be deployed. 00:02:36
Some situations where a parachute recovery system could be used are loss of control of 00:02:40
the aircraft due to icing, engine failure and airframe structural failure. 00:02:45
One of the most common causes of general aviation aircraft accidents is pilot disorientation. 00:02:51
Many pilots are only rated to operate an aircraft under visual flight rules or VFR. 00:02:57
But in order to fly in bad weather, a pilot should also be able to fly under IFR or instrument 00:03:04
flight rules. 00:03:09
If a visual flight rules rated pilot encounters weather where he can't see visual landmarks 00:03:11
outside the plane, then spatial disorientation can occur. 00:03:15
When this happens, the pilot literally cannot determine if his plane is in level flight 00:03:20
or if it's turning or banking. 00:03:25
Very frequently, the VFR pilot will rely on his instincts rather than his instruments 00:03:27
which can lead to a catastrophic outcome. 00:03:32
With the parachute recovery system on board, no matter what the situation, the pilot has 00:03:36
one last best option to save not only the aircraft, but most importantly, the lives 00:03:40
of everyone on board. 00:03:46
I know this is being used for general aviation aircraft, but is there a chance that it could 00:03:48
be used on larger planes? 00:03:52
I think it can be applied to some of the business jets where you're talking about 10, 12, 14 00:03:53
passenger perhaps. 00:03:58
That would have to be really investigated closely. 00:03:59
But for application to a transport, you're not going to see that. 00:04:03
The structural requirements for the aircraft would be enormous to handle that as well as 00:04:06
the design characteristics for the chute itself to be able to take the energy of the large 00:04:12
transport. 00:04:16
So you're not going to be able to use this efficiently on anything of much size greater 00:04:17
than a general aviation aircraft. 00:04:22
So Lisa, why is NASA working on this type of project? 00:04:24
NASA has a program called the Aviation Safety Program, and in that we're looking at different 00:04:27
types of things to improve safety everywhere. 00:04:32
Some of that in the early part of the program was focused on general aviation. 00:04:35
There are 1,000 lives a year lost to general aviation accidents, and this type of system 00:04:38
can really improve those numbers and hopefully get those down where we see a lot more people 00:04:44
walking away from accidents. 00:04:48
Valoración:
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Eres el primero. Inicia sesión para valorar el vídeo.
Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
▼ Mostrar / ocultar niveles
      • Nivel Intermedio
Autor/es:
NASA LaRC Office of Education
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
622
Fecha:
28 de mayo de 2007 - 17:04
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
NASAs center for distance learning
Duración:
04′ 54″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
480x360 píxeles
Tamaño:
28.49 MBytes

Del mismo autor…

Ver más del mismo autor

EducaMadrid, Plataforma Educativa de la Comunidad de Madrid

Plataforma Educativa EducaMadrid