Paragliders

[Atlantis]

Has anyone tried to equip a model rocket with paraglider. I'm looking at different parachute design for the rockets I am building for the science olympiad competition tomorrow. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kjohnson]

Yes, but they take a while to construct and get right. If you search in the Apogee Rockets newsletter archive you will find an article on gliding parachutes.

kj

 

[Handeman]

I've been working on an RC parasail type chute based on things use in RC Skydiving

The 7 cell chute doesn't seem to be too difficult to make, but rigging it for the 10 to 15 degree down angle needed for the correct glide might be a little harder.

 

[abw]

Ahhh! You're lucky! My high school was supposed to attend our regional Science Olympiad competition, but no one finished their projects so we ended up not going. From experience, dry cleaning bags (or lightweight garbage bags) work really well, especially if you rig them with 6 or more shroud lines. Was your event the "scrambler"?

 

[RocKiteman]

Yes, but they take a while to construct and get right. If you search in the Apogee Rockets newsletter archive you will find an article on gliding parachutes.

FWIW, the new 'third edition' of Tim Van Milligan's book, MODEL ROCKET DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION, has plans for a single-keel parawing in Chapter 10, "Streamer & Parachute Recovery Systems".

-Allan, aka RocKiteman
NAR #78361
N.E. North Carolina, USA