List,
This braking parachute question always leaves me wondering why the drag
racers can slow from 300 mph passes with a parachute time after time without
very many incidents. What is the big difference in slowing from 300 at a
drag strip and slowing from 380 or so on the salt? I'm sure I'm missing the
point here somewhere but something is at work on tethers and chute design
for land-speed applications that is primarily solved in drag racing. The
discussion early this year on how to find the optimum point for placing a
tether connection made sense as I read it. The cars that have problems on
the salt are primarily placing that connection in the wrong place and
disturbing the balance of the car at speed. I realize that drag cars differ
so little that once someone gets it right it's easy for everyone to do the
same thing. Not so with land-speed cars. The basilc ability of getting the
parachute to deploy and do it's job seems to be the same however. The
tether straps are able to handle the same loads on dragsters, ribbon chutes
and the cross panel chutes hold up, what is so different on the salt? The
Burkland's car certainly had enough thought in the design area for braking
but now Tom has gone back to the drawing board to see what he missed.
Obviously the deployment of the chutes was at speeds higher than he had
intended. What's the answer?
Wes
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