ParaZero’s commitment to safety drives us to innovate and push beyond even our own boundaries. Recently, we embarked on a thrilling series of crane tests to evaluate the effectiveness of various parachutes designed for heavy platforms.
Why deploy a 400-hundred-foot crane and drop thousands of pounds from it?
Here is a short explanation:
The only way to test the efficiency of a parachute is to test it in the real world.
For aircraft weighing over 20 KG, using a very tall crane is an industry-leading method to gather the valid data which ensures the parachute’s reliability.
Heavy aircraft, like the ones we are testing for in this video, can cost anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars and represent a significant investment.
Damaging such aircraft during testing can halt R&D for months and increase expenses significantly, making a safe and effective testing method, like the crane, crucial.
Our innovative approach involves using a crane to test representative aircraft weights, enabling our engineering teams to evaluate parachute systems without risking the actual aircraft being tested for. The materials we are using to create the representative aircraft weights are inexpensive and reusable, allowing us to perform multiple tests efficiently each day.
Equipped with over 10 different sensors, our SmartAir Pro flight computer monitors key parameters such as velocity, altitude, acceleration, angle, air pressure, and more. Additionally, the crane itself also carries sensors to ensure precise control of the testing environment.
Collectively, all of the sensors that we monitor help us precisely calculate the minimum safe altitude, average descent rate, and terminal velocity parameters that are crucial for safe drone operations.