How a Parachute Works: From Canopy to Safe Landing

If you fall out of an airplane with a backpack, in no time, you're already dropping at nearly 200 kilometers per hour.

So, you pull out a bedsheet to block the air, but the force of the wind makes you lose your grip, the sheet flies away, and you keep falling.

So, you tie the sheet with ropes to webbing that wraps around your body.

These are the suspension lines. Now you won't let it slip away anymore.

But the sheet takes such a heavy hit from the air that it rips apart, and you start falling all over again.

So, you replace the sheet with a durable circular fabric made of ripstop nylon that can withstand the wind's force.

This is the canopy. Now your fall slows down significantly, but the air doesn't push against the fabric evenly.

One second it pushes more on one side, then on the other, and the parachute begins to swing violently until you're about to hit the ground headfirst.

So, you leave an opening at the top. Now the fabric still blocks the air, but part of the air escapes through that hole, stopping the swing.

This is the apex vent. But now you have no way to steer where you're going, and the wind carries you straight into a tree.

So, you swap out the round shape for two layers of fabric divided into cells.

Air rushes in through the front, inflates the cells, and the fabric turns into a wing.

Instead of just falling straight down, you glide forward.

This is the ram-air wing parachute. Next, you add toggles on both sides.

If you pull the right toggle down, it creates more drag on the right side, and you steer right.

If you pull the left one, you steer left.

And if you pull both sides down together, you break your forward momentum.

These are the steering toggles. Now you can steer clear of the trees.

Except one day, this whole tangle of fabric and cords gets tangled up and fails to deploy properly out of your backpack.

So, you fold everything neatly into a deployment bag inside the pack and throw a much smaller mini parachute first, which pulls your main parachute out into the airstream.

This is the pilot chute. But if it snaps open all at once, you take a violent jolt because the parachute decelerates way too fast.

So, you add a small square piece of fabric that slides down as the wing inflates, damping the shock of the opening.

This is the slider. But what if your parachute has a manufacturing defect?

You won't even have time to complain to whoever sold it to you.

So, you pack a second parachute into your rig.

You cut away the malfunctioning main chute and deploy the other one.

This is the reserve parachute. But what if you pass out?

There's simply no way for you to pull the cord yourself.

So, you install a device in the backpack that monitors your altitude and rate of descent.

When you're falling too fast and get too low, it automatically fires the reserve container open and saves your life.

This is the automatic activation device.

Now, as you approach the landing target, you pull both steering toggles down to flare, slowing down your forward speed and sink rate so you don't slam into the ground on touchdown.

Congratulations, you just engineered a parachute.

If you enjoyed this, subscribe.