Retrorocket Soft Landing of Airdropped Cargo

Abstract

A retrorocket soft landing system for airdropped cargo is described and mathematically analyzed. Solid propellant rockets and fixed height ground sensing, previously used in the experimental Parachute Retrorocket Airdrop System (PRADS), are assumed for this system. Seventeen variables affecting the load impact velocity are defined and used to write the one-body equations of motion for the system. A computer is used to generate 500 constrained random values for each independent variable, to calculate the impact velocity for 500 cases by solving the equations of motion, and to statistically analyze the results. It is concluded that 95% of the soft landings can be expected to have impact velocities between 2.0 and 3.4 m/s (6.1 and 10.3 ft/s).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1979
Accession Number
ADA085220

Entities

People

  • William E. Nykvist

Organizations

  • United States Army Soldier Systems Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Delivery
  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Altitude
  • Burning Rate
  • Combustion
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Engineering
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Ignition
  • Mechanics
  • Propellants
  • Sea Level
  • Solid Propellants
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Statistical Distributions

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Aerial Delivery - Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
  • Marine Hydrodynamics