Originally Posted by
Bonkey
How long did they take to pack away each time - and who actually did this? Presumably they had to be qualified to pack these things away to ensure they deployed correctly next time?
I don't know but what I do remember was when, in the 1960s, Sidney Jackson of Irvins was trying to get us to fit them to our aeroplanes they were working on self-packing 'chutes. That would overcome the problem that after use the 'chute had to be released (and someone had to go and pick it up) or else dragged on the ground to the point where it was no longer airworthy.
We didn't like the idea as the pilots had no simple pre-flight test they could do.