Long Line Loiter: Continuous Air Drop to Small Sites
Abstract
It is envisioned that the Long-Line Loiter concept may be a simple solution to the long-standing problem of precise airborne delivery of personnel and supplies to selected ground locations. Recent studies of continuous resupply from a small aircraft revealed that a line can be accurately dropped to a small precise location on the ground while the aircraft maintains a comfortable altitude above this location, out of range of small arms fire. Once the aircraft is established in its orbit, loads of up to at least 200 pounds can be slid down the line to an anchor point, using conventional parachutes to check the rate of descent to approximately 40 feet/second at impact. Current studies provide the system parameters based on line length, parachute size, and matching of payloads and parachute canopies for optimum descent rates. These scaled values give the user the flexibility to reduce large loads to appropriate parcel sizes, yet insure no dispersal of the packages, regardless of the number, during delivery.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1975
- Accession Number
- ADA017520
Entities
People
- Eric J. Jumper