What are some pros and cons of the Airframe Parachute System?

Question

What are some pros and cons of the Airframe Parachute System?

Answer 1

All con. The systems are a bunch of unnecessary weight that you'll haul around and never use.

Answer 2

the only pro that i can see is that it MAY save your life, doesn't promise not to injure you in the process. CONs would be that using it wrecks the airplane. As an aircraft owner and operqator, I think the same money could be out to more effective use through better training and descision making. I have never seen a situation where a person would have been better off with such a system except in the case of structural failures of ultralights doing stuff that they probably would not have been doing had they not felt a bit cocky because they had the chute system as a back up.

Answer 3

Pro: Saves lives, provides a safety net in case the pilots are incapacitated, new pilots can trigger it in bad weather conditions, again saves lives.

Con: Expensive, heavy, difficult to maintain, difficult to build, difficult to attach, comprimises hull integrity, comprimises flight characteristics, may make pilots unusually bold.

And before someone asks, no it is not possible to put a parachute on a commercial liner like a 747. Materials strong enough to lower a 747 by parachute does not yet exist.

Answer 4

They give you a false sense of safety. there are so very few instances where you could use one safely. Most crashes happen when you don't expect them to happen. Imagine having to pull a cord before you have a car accident.... you usually don't see the accident coming. The Cirrus aircraft are equipped with a parachute and there have been alot of those planes crash, I think there have only been 2 Cirrus planes land safely with the chute.

Answer 5

Pro: You live with minimal injuries, at least that's the goal in mind.

Cons: First, it may encourage pilots to be more risky with their plane, which can hurt not only them but anyone below their air holding them up, for that matter. It's expensive, and is a piece of "life insurance" you probably won't use at all in your time flying the aircraft. For that matter, most crashes occur during landing, take-off, and low-level flight. The chute system is designed for a higher-altitude engine loss/loss of control, and/or a flat spin that is unrecoverable.

The biggest con, I would imagine, is that if you ever pull the chute, your plane is history. It does so much structural damage, you are better off selling it to a scrap metal junkyard and buying a new plane than dealing with the damages the chute will cause.