RocketRage Quantum chutes?

mikec said:

I don't know if this is standard across the literature, but "Parachute Recovery Systems Design Manual" by T W Knacke does use the canopy area, not the projected area, as the reference area -- see page 4-11. "... parachutes use the canopy surface area. The selection of the wing planform and the parachute surface area as references was made for practical reasons... the surface area of the parachute canopy is fixed; however, the frontal projected area of the inflated parachute canopy changes with airspeed, porosity. line length, and type of parachute."

That said, I totally agree that using the frontal area would be much better for making apples-to-apples comparisons between chute types, since that's what most rocketry simulation software could most easily make use of. But the effective Cd seems to vary with descent rate/load to a pretty significant degree for many designs.

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