Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Aircraft parachutes

They had their first save on a full-sized plane recently.

All Cirris planes come with ballistic parachutes. There were two crashes earlier this year where either the pilot didn't activate the parachute in time or it failed to deploy. There was a case last month were the pilot did get the chute to deploy.

These ballistic parachutes have been available for ultralights for a long time and have saved over 100 lives. They're expensive and somewhat heavy but when you need them, they're really nice to have. They recently certified a version for Cessna 172s like mine. The installed cost approaches $10,000 and it weighs somewhere around 40 pounds. I doubt I'll be buying one.

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