Low-speed force and flight investigation of various methods for controlling parawings
Low speed wind tunnel force and flight tests of control systems for paragliders
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Low speed wind tunnel force and flight tests of control systems for paragliders
Earth-landing systems for mercury, gemini and apollo spacecraft, including parachutes and paragliders
Earth landing systems describing Mercury drogue and main parachutes, Gemini paraglider and Apollo impact attenuation systems
A meeting on Space Vehicle Landing and Recovery was held on July 10-11, 1962 at NASA Headquarters. The Centers were asked to participate in this meeting in accordance with their interest, activities, and requirements in the subject area. Primary emphasis was directed toward parachutes, parachute-rocket systems, paragliders, and lifting rotor concepts applicable to bothe booster and spacecraft landing and recovery.
This report addresses issues in developing a flight control design for vehicles operating across a broad flight regime and with highly nonlinear physical descriptions of motion. Specifically it addresses the need for reentry vehicles that could operate through reentry from space to controlled touchdown on Earth. The latter part of controlled descent is achieved by parachute or paraglider - or by all automatic or a human-controlled landing similar to that of the Orbiter. Since this report addresses the specific needs of human-carrying (not necessarily piloted) reentry vehicles, it deals with highly nonlinear equations of motion, and then-generated control systems must be robust across a very wide range of physics. Thus, this report deals almost exclusively with some form of dynamic inversion (DI). Two vital aspects of control theory - noninteracting control laws and the transformation of nonlinear systems into equivalent linear systems - are embodied in DI. Though there is no doubt that the mathematical tools and underlying theory are widely available, there are open issues as to the practicality of using DI as the only or primary design approach for reentry articles. This report provides a set of guidelines that can be used to determine the practical usefulness of the technique.
Landing characteristics were investigated using dynamic models. The landing speeds for several let-down systems are simulated. Demonstrations include: (1) the vertical landing of parachute-supported capsules on water; (2) reduction of landing acceleration by shaping the impact surface for water entry; (3) problems created by horizontal velocity due to wind; (4) the use of energy absorbers (yielding metal legs or torus bags) for land or water landings; (5) problems associated with horizontal land landings; (6) the use of a paraglider to aid in vehicle direction control; (7) a curved undersurface to serve as a skid-rocker to convert sinking-speed energy into angular energy; (8) horizontal-type landing obtained with winged vehicles on a hard runway; (9) the dangers of high-speed water landings; and (10) the positive effects of parachute support for landing winged vehicles.
An investigation was made to determine the landing-impact characteristics of a reentry vehicle having a multiple-air-bag load-alleviation system. A 1/16-scale dynamic model having four canted air bags was tested at flight-path angles of 90 degrees (vertical), 45 degrees, and 27 degrees for a parachute or paraglider vertical letdown velocity of 30 feet per second (full scale). Landings were made on concrete at attitudes ranging from -l5 degrees to 20 degrees. The friction coefficient between the model heat shield and the concrete was approximately 0.4. An aluminum diaphragm, designed to rupture at 10.8 pounds per square inch gage, was used to maintain initial pressure in the air bags for a short time period.
Effects of camber and twist on aerodynamic characteristics of parawings
Pressure distributions on 3 rigid wings simulating parawings with varied canopy curvature and leading edge sweep at mach 2.29 to 4.65
Wind tunnel stability and control tests of flexible wing manned aircraft - parawing
Low speed wind sweep effect on parawings with equal-length leading edges & keel - aerodynamic characteristics
Flexible wings red - stability & control of para- gliders as decelerators for spacecraft recovery
Application of the tension structure concept for flexible wings to be used in spacecraft recovery and landing, emphasizing para-wing aerodynamics
Deployment studies of a dynamically and elastically scaled model of an inflatable parawing, deployed from a capsule mounted with rotational freedom in a wind tunnel
Low-speed longitudinal aerodynamic investigation of parawings as auxiliary lifting devices for supersonic aircraft configuration
Operational flight research tests on advanced manned research vehicles, parasev and m-2
Configurations, structures, materials, advantages and applications for parawings