Designed For Larger, Heavier Aircraft
Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc. --
manufacturer of whole-aircraft parachute recovery systems for
general aviation and recreational aircraft -- told ANN Wednesday
announced today a series of successful development tests of the
Next Generation Parachute System (NGPS). The newly designed, larger
airframe parachutes are designed to handle much heavier loads,
increasing the number of civilian and military aircraft which could
benefit from whole-aircraft parachute recovery systems.
"The test results of our new NGPS could not have been better,"
BRS CEO Larry Williams said. "This new system represents a
huge leap forward in our ability make a wider range of airplanes
even safer."
Tests of the new system were recently performed in the
southwestern United States using a large, former military aircraft
to drop the new, larger canopies with substantially heavier
payloads.
Canopy strength tests will continue over the next several months
before the parachutes will be available for integration and entire
system testing. Additional tests and further development will be
required before the NGPS system is commercialized.
"BRS is also investing in technology to increase the speed at
which this development takes place" said Frank Hoffmann, BRS VP of
engineering.
That's an important consideration, especially as BRS looks to
supplying ballistic parachutes for larger, faster aircraft such as Diamond
Aircraft's upcoming D-Jet (below).
BRS says its Next Generation Parachute System also marks another
significant milestone in the company's efforts toward enhanced
quality and cost controls. The NGPS test canopies were among the
company's first projects to be produced in-house at the new
integrated manufacturing facility in Tijuana, Mexico.
"We think that we have integrated our US-based engineering
process, our sewing facility and our final assembly in South St.
Paul (MN) into an international organization capable of sustained
manufacturing of next generation, high quality, high volume-low
cost parachutes," said Williams. "Having our own sewing operations
also allows BRS to rapidly scale up manufacturing efforts to match
anticipated increases in demand."
Ballistic Recovery Systems has delivered more than 25,000
parachutes since beginning operations in 1981. More than 3,000 of
the Company's systems are flying on certified aircraft with that
number growing rapidly. BRS is credited with saving the lives of
199 pilots and passengers.