Ryan "Rogallo wing" concepts

[TsrJoe]

Pardon our interruption...

 

[robunos]

Looks to be either the Precision Drop Glider or the Towed Universal Glider concept . . .

cheers,
Robin.

 

[hesham]

From Army 1960.

 

[publiusr]

With military use of Starship-perhaps this can be looked at again.

 

[hesham]

From Army Research & Development 1964.

 

[hesham]

From Aeroplane 1961.

 

[hesham]

From Army 1960.

From NASA.

 

[hesham]

From American Patent.

 

[Byeman]

With military use of Starship-perhaps this can be looked at again.

No, Starship is not a reason for this to work

 

[hesham]

From Army Aviation 1961/6

 

[Archibald]

Ryan had HUGE plans for paragliders. But unfolding them in flight was way too tricky and dangerous.

 

[riggerrob]

Ryan had HUGE plans for paragliders. But unfolding them in flight was way too tricky and dangerous.

Like I hinted at in post #70, during the 1970s all sport parachute manufacturers were struggling with the question of how to soften opening shock.
Irvin tried their Opening Shock Inhibitor on their Delta II. OSI was essentially a wide strap (8”?) wrapped around the top of the suspension lines. A sheet of Teflon reduced friction burns to suspension lines. OSI enjoyed limited success.
Then Jim Handbury installed a rectangular, 4 grommet, sail slider in his Paradactyl and that worked so well that sail sliders have dominated the skydiving business ever since.
PZ-81 has a two grommet slider attached to the pilot-chute (1 meter diameter?) to lift the canopy out of the container and hold the bottom skin closed until line stretch. The area of the pilot-chute is roughly the same size as the sail slider used by Hanbury.
Some versions of square Jalbert Para-Foils used similar 4 grommet, spider sliders connected to the pilot-chute by a long bridle (roughly the same length as the suspension lines). A few solo “style”’competitors installed double-length bridles (with a pulley on the slider slider) because they liked to deploy at faster air speeds (160 mph) than belly-fliers (120 mph). Remember that opening shock increases with the square of the speed when you toss your pilot-chute.

 

[publiusr]

Perhaps memory materials that open origami style in a more gradual way.

When Adam Savage inflated the lead balloon—very fragile—he did that via a “twist” imparted by folds.

Perhaps aerospace may benefit from protein folding research?

Something to help unfold in steps…open…slow…open a bit more…slow a bit more.

Topology may be key.