- Practicality. Parachutes are expensive and having 200 or more on an airplane will crash the airline before the airplane even gets off the ground.
- Weight. The weight of all the parachutes on board would limit the capacity of an aircraft.
- Difficulty to Operate. Parachutes are often times difficult to operate and would not work with children or people with special needs.
- Urgency of Use. Many aircraft accidents happen either immediately after takeoff or just before landing, and there is no time to get all the passengers to put on parachutes.
- Exit Access is Impossible. In order for the passengers to exit the plane, they have to run to the back of the plane so they can jump out since the front door cannot be used as there are too many things to hit (i.e., wings, tail, antennas, landing gear, flaps, engine, etc).
After some deep contemplation (meaning a quick visit to the toilet), here are some solutions that might solve the issues above and hopefully help the reinstituting parachutes on airplanes.
- Parachutes need not be expensive; we only need to know how to recycle. Polyester Fiber, which is the material used for parachutes, can now be made from recycled bottles. It was proven to be more efficient if Polyester Fibers were manufactured by just recycling PET bottles since both are basically made from the same chemical “polyethylene terephthalate” and there will be less heating and energy required in processing the polymer ingredient. (http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-living/articles/62032.aspx)
- Polyester fibers are actually lightweight; hydrophobic (it feels dry or moves moisture effects away from touch; unusually high melting point; resistant to dyes, solvents, and most chemical; stain resistant; stretch and shrink resistant; wrinkle, mildew, and abrasion resistant; and easy to launder. With this properties coupled with a few research on weight reduction, I believe a parachute weighing less than the average weight of 90lbs is plausible. (http://www.ehow.com/about_5087331_properties-polyester-fabrics.html)
- A parachute is put on almost just the same as a life jacket, maybe even simpler with a few innovations. It's just like putting on a backpack and setting up a cord saying "PULL TO OPEN CHUTE". How hard can that be? How about people with special needs? How about a timer to open the chute automatically? We can even make people glide without an actual chute (see wingsuit flying), how hard can this be one be right?
- Why not make a parachute and life jacket in one? And then use according to need.
- There are ways to provide emergency exits on airplanes which supports the use of parachutes. Like for example, aside from the tail-end exit, how about an emergency exit on the plane floor itself? Or how about ejector seats like the ones they use on fighter jets? I think people would rather take a chance jumping off a plane with a chute than just waiting inside the plane until it crashes.
We can put the world in an iPhone and we can't put parachutes in planes? Think about it.
Making Origami Paper Fighter Planes that look like the Real Deal Click Here!
No comments:
Post a Comment