350 Feet
 

Who remembers the parachute that was designed to drop troops at 350 feet and something like 250 knots?

Early to mid 80's. Was developed because of the high threat AA level for cold war insertions.

Was designed, developed and under test jumping until.......:eek:

Here is an article,, This was after me,, But I do remember rumors that the USSR jumped chute-less in WWII, into snow banks??

Here is a chart that shows probability of FAIL at different heights..



link:

This is an interesting study from 1987 on low altitude (300 ft), high speed (250 kts) personnel parachuting.

BL: The neck can't absorb and dissipate the acceleration forces of the opening shock. Basically says "don't do it"

You'd almost think that an oddly shaped parachute with an oversized reefing system that took much longer to open than the T-10 might be a good starting point...
...maybe something with a HUGE slider that kept the canopy from snapping open during a 180+ knot opening shock. Something that would rely on forward throw of the airplane to open the parachute in stages


...maybe something like a T-11





Nah. That would be silly.

I remember it....

I worked for LTG Lindsay when he commanded XVIII Airborne Corps in the mid 80s.
Just prior to taking over the Corps he did a test jump of low opening parachute system with a German Army NCO. If I recall correctly the jump was done onto Pike Field from 250'AGL.
Both chutes had problems and the German NCO died as a result.
I wasn't there when it happened but I remember General Lindsay telling about it.

These work,,

BUTT,, they have limited range and are not real stealth'd. :D

That's it
 

That's it. The death pretty much put a halt to the experiment.

Couple of stories in the Army Times on the system leading up to the jump on Pike Field. The chute had a set of smaller to larger chutes designed to slow down the jumper before the main chute deployed. Think HSLADS with a warm body. Somewhat complicated and I remember team room talk of "Oh, Hell No".

Ah.... the 250/250 experiment... it sucked. It hurt, a lot. It scared the shit out of you just thinking about it.

I'm certain that whoever thought that one up wasn't on jump status. ;)

I remember something about the Red Army testing/trying that during WWII. Plane flew NOE at stall speed and the 'airborne' troops jumped out the door into snow drifts. As I recall the Soviets had a forty percent casualty rate as 'acceptable' ... but then again they weren't short of people ....

.

Even high altitude, high speed chutes are dangerous. Ask Sen. McCain and anyone else who ejected...

Sounds like multiple chance for cigarette roll of collapsed chute if even one does not deploy correctly, and with the vortex, who knows, it could hang you in mid air.

I remember this. My Pathfinder unit, 11th CAG, worked often with the Fallschirmjaeger 252 Bn out of Calw. We had an invitation to join them at Altenstadt so we could jump this rig. After that fatality, the jump was called off. That was in 1985.

250 kts 250 feet
 

The chute was developed by Germany. A MAJ from the German Airborne School and XVIII Coprs CG, LTG Lindsey jumped. Major was killed and LTG Lindsey broke his leg in several placed. Big NO GO.
:mad:

Soviet Paratroops
 

I also heard that the Nazis started painting large boulders white. Not sure if that one is true.