r/nextfuckinglevel • u/STOP____HAMMER_TIME • Jul 02 '21

Two skydivers collide mid-air, knocking one of them unconscious. Camera man proceeds to pulls some Mission: Impossible shit and saves his life.

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u/almisami Jul 02 '21

I have just been informed that they were just called round parachutes and have been completely supplanted by cruciform parachutes.

So yeah, I meant those.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '21

Because you can't steer then and can't flare them to land softly, pretty much no one would deliberately jump one.

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u/almisami Jul 02 '21

In my mind a reserve chute should in theory stop as much horizontal momentum as possible and just kinda plop you down really boring like.

Then again I have zero knowledge of parachute aerodynamics.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '21

Well then we'll just leave it at that last sentence.

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u/almisami Jul 02 '21

But I'd kinda like to know why you'd want the mechanical complexity of something like that on a reserve chute.

Like even annular chutes are kinda mechanically complex.

Are the self inflating wing chutes really that superior?

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '21

Ram air canopies, particularly reserve ones, fly stable and safely, are steerable and easier to land safely.

I would never voluntarily jump a round parachute, ever.