glider tug aircraft
Ballistic rescue parachutes Components A small
solid-fuel rocket is used to pull the parachute out from its housing and deploy the canopy fully within seconds. Typically on ultralight installations the rocket is mounted on the parachute container. On larger aircraft installations the rocket may be remotely mounted. Over the years the BRS systems employed have been improved and updated and the current version is the BRS-6. This has a separate rocket installation that can be removed from the parachute so that the parachute can be sent for re-packing without the problems of trying to ship the rocket along with it. Typically the parachute requires repacking every six years and the rocket requires replacing every 12 years.
Rescues completed The first ballistic recovery parachutes were on the market in 1982, and the first deployment was in 1983. Between then and April 2007, over 225 people were aboard 201 aircraft which deployed BRS parachutes; most of whose lives were presumably saved by those parachute deployments. As of January 2023, the company's website states that 466 lives have been saved (of which over 240 of those lives were involved in CAPS rescues).
Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) ==See also==