If Nasa can put huge parachutes on its solid booster rockets, why not put them on commercial airlines? Im sure

Question

in some scenarios they would save lives.

Answer 1

This is a very simple explanation. Aircraft (especially large ones) are fragile in comparison to shuttle boosters. Shuttle boosters are high-pressure structures using materials thick enough to withstand thousands of degrees and thousands of pounds of pressure. Commercial airliners are designed to be light and efficient and only about to hold small psi differentials. The structure would never withstand a shock cord yanking on one part of the plane. The plane would break into many pieces.

Answer 2

The Cirrus small plane has a parachute system, but it didn't do the Yankees much good!

Planes very rarely fail while flying at altitude, especially big jets.

They either run into each other, get flown into the ground, or never get off the ground.

All in all they are pretty safe, and the crashes that do hapen wouldn't be helped by an onboard parachute!

One note: the stupidest thing on the space shuttle is the wings and tail: a parachute would work just as well and increase the payload of the shuttle!

Answer 3

i think in regards to saving lives, an airplane has a glide to fall ratio, usually near 20:1, meaning, that given complete engine failure, a plane can go 20,000 feet and fall 1000. this is useful for getting a plane to land at an airport, incase of engine failure. Boeing sells planes with about 2 hours of 'glide' time. This means that the plane, with complete engine failure, has about two hours to glide before it actually hits the ground. That means that a plane has roughly 1000 miles that it can bargain with, giving engine failure.

To me, this seems reasonable because a plane doesnt fall out of the sky. Regardless of what cartoons show, the engine fails, and you dont just drop like a brick. If that were the case, parachutes would be practical for saving lifes, but at the same time, would as many people fly? Usual accidents are planes hitting mountains, or at takeoff/landing scenerios. Very few planes "fall" out of the sky, so they also would not generate enough energy to really warrant using the parachute, because the parachute would act like brakes and cause the plane to stall.

Answer 4

Passengers are available all kinds and sizes. with the intention to accomodate truthfully everyone, each and each airplane might could conceal an countless decision of parachute sizes. occasion: If a very mild passenger replaced into strapped right into a chute sized for a extensive individual, the chute could no longer open (loss of weight) and the small individual might freefall. the choice case might contain a portly passenger establishing a small individual's chute. Rip! and then, RIP. additionally, from a criminal viewpoint, an airline could be sued over a concern like this basically because of the fact some guy does no longer eat, or in the different case, some guy does no longer placed his fork down...and that they have got been given the incorrect chute.

Answer 5

Parachute are used are brakes. NASA deploys them on boosters because they have greater speeds than regular civil planes. If you have noticed many fighter planes also have parachutes as brakes. The sole reason is due to high airspeed.
Also these will be very expensive in passenger aircrafts and their braking action is not smooth so passengers will feel a stronger jerk while brakes deployed.
Hope this helps.
regards
AvSats

Answer 6

While that's possible in theory -- there are parachute systems for small aircraft -- the size and weight of one for a commercial airliner would more than double the cost of air travel. And that for an extremely rare event.

Answer 7

Don't the boosters fall back to earth without parachutes? I also think that parachutes aren't going to help a horizontal moving airplane, because it would slow it down and stall it.

Answer 8

one word- money.

it would be too expensive, and it would not be very useful. yes, it might save a few lives, but that would have to be one huge parachute if they wanted a slow descent.

Answer 9

Wow!!! That is a pretty damn good idea. Better patent it before someone steals it. NICE!!!

Answer 10

The "Problem" with this idea is: IF THE CHUTE OPENED ACCIDENTALLY YOU WOULD KILL EVERYONE ON BOARD! DUH!