New Use for Drone Rescue Parachute
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עברית (Hebrew)
Parachute rescue systems used with drones can be applied in the aerospace industry. A parachute safety solution manufacturer Drone Rescue Systems supports the European research project FALCon – Formation flight for in-Air Launcher 1st stage Capturing demonstration. The company leads research on how launch vehicles can be returned to the launch site as efficiently as possible for re-use.
The aim of FALCon EU organization is to achieve cost-efficient and environmentally friendly satellite transport. The focus of the project lies on the return of rocket stages after launch. In order to be able to reuse these stages, efforts are being made to recapture them in the air using a “rocket catcher “.
The company developed a fast and efficient parachute safety solution for drones. The parachute safety solution works autonomously and independently from the drone and ejects the parachute in a fraction of a second, enabling safe commercial and private drone usage even over crowded places. The main goals of the Drone Rescue products are to reduce the risk of harming people on the ground and to bring down the expensive equipment safely when the drone malfunctions while in flight.
The relation between take-off-weight and the additional payload caused by the rescue system is unique, according to the company website. The patented mechanism to store and bring out the parachute is electrically triggered. The parachute will not be squeezed all the time (like with other systems) to minimize the time which is needed to evolve. After a release it only takes a few minutes to re-pack the system and get the UAV ready to fly again – without replacing any consumables.
According to insideunmannedsystems.com, for the project’s next three years the focus will be on the development and flight demonstration of a technical solution. While still in the air, rocket stages are to be captured by a transport aircraft over the sea and pulled into the vicinity of the landing site. There, the stages are to land independently.
“We are proud to be part of the FALCon research project together with five international partners and DLR as part of HORIZON 2020, the EU’s largest research and innovation program to date. The capture and towing of rocket stages in flight, i.e. an autonomous and safe landing, is a particularly interesting topic for us as a manufacturer of parachute safety solutions,” says Andreas Ploier, CEO of Drone Rescue Systems.
The research project has already carried out initial flight experiments with unmanned small aircraft.
