EVALUATION OF CANOPY JETTISONING SYSTEMS FOR SAILPLANES

Abstract

The accidents requiring a parachute jump were normally caused by a mid-air collision and occurred below a height of about 1000 m above ground. The time between collision and impact on the ground is very short, whereby each second is of crucial importance. The sailplanes are equipped with different jettisoning systems which delay or prevent the correct operation of this emergency system. Thus, a standardization of the numbers, the location and the method of opening is of prime importance so that the pilot is always familiar with the jettisoning procedure. There should not be more than 2-levers for jettisoning and the panel should be raised with the canopy tospeed up the canopy jettisoning. The canopy itself should be pulled away automatically by the airsream. For this, the front part of the canopy should be raised by at least 60 mm. The investigation program has not finished yet and the final results will be shown later.