Peter A Swan

US Patent:

20200047892, Feb 13, 2020

Filed:

Sep 4, 2019

Appl. No.:

16/560879

Inventors:

- Palo Alto CA, US
Amy Qian - Sunnyvale CA, US
Damon Vander Lind - Alameda CA, US
Timothy Mattson - San Jose CA, US
Eric Miller - Santa Cruz CA, US
Peter A. Swan - West Sacramento CA, US

International Classification:

B64D 17/80
B64D 17/54
B64D 17/72

Abstract:

In an embodiment, a system to deploy a plurality of parachutes includes a plurality of parachute canopies each packed in a canister, a plurality of rockets adapted to extract an associated canopy from the canister, and a controller. The controller is configured to determine that an aircraft is at least one of: in a hover mode of operation and a forward flight mode of operation. In response to the determination that the aircraft is in the hover mode of operation, the controller applies a hover deployment sequence including by instructing the plurality of parachutes to deploy substantially simultaneously. In response to the determination that the aircraft is in the forward mode of operation and above a threshold airspeed, the controller applies a forward deployment sequence including by instructing the plurality of parachutes to deploy in a predefined sequence.