A Question For Both Pilots and Engineers.
Hello all,
I am a student in the UK studying for my A2's in the second half of my A levels with a view to go onto study "Aerospace Engineering with Pilot Studies" at university. As a bit of background I am already training for my NPPL.
One of my A level subjects is design and for my final project I am looking at designing a system that would allow a light to medium weight aircraft to safely descend to the ground in the event of a serious engine failure, airframe failure or other such occurrence.
I am aware of one such system that exists called "The Cirrus Airframe Parachute System" (CAPS) however this only works for a light 5 man aircraft.
I am looking at designing a system that would work for anything up to a 50 passenger capacity aircraft, e.g the Bombardier Dash 8.
I realise that using parachutes to gently "float" the aircraft down, similar to CAPS, for a larger aircraft is impractical if not impossible, so what I am suggesting is a number of components that would decelerate the aircraft to a degree that it is traveling at a slow enough velocity on impact for the crash to be survivable. It would not be gentle and people may come away with broken bones but they would be alive.
My main idea would be to have a drogue parachute to deploy out the tail section, to reduce horizontal velocity, and then have several small parachutes to deploy out the top of the fuselage to slow the aircraft's vertical velocity. Airbags mounted in sections in the bottom of the fuselage would then deploy to cushion the impact force upon landing.
Some more outlandish ideas involve using small solid fuel "retro rockets" mounted in the nose that would fire to oppose the direction of motion, there by reducing horizontal velocity.
These components could be used together, e.g rockets to slow horizontal velocity and the airbags to deploy to cushion the vertical impact.
These systems are designed to be used in conjunction with the aircraft's own deceleration devices: air brakes, thrust reversers etc.
The main operating environment for this system would be when the aircraft is at a low altitude, particularly on approach, just after take off and on go arounds.
I would appreciate any opinions and suggestions from people who have much more experience in flying and engineering than myself and ideas from people in general
Please ask if you would like me to clarify anything.