Drone/Model Aircraft Parachute Feedback

[Aerosaka]

I am currently in an engineering class where me and my team need to come up with an idea and develop it through the engineering process. I am posting this to see how the people of this community would feel about our idea.

So our teams idea is a parachute pack that can be attached to both drones or model planes while costing less than $100. We see other drone parachutes on the market, but they are usually designed for one particular drone, and/or are hundreds of dollars. What we want to do is develop a low cost, versatile and easy to use parachute that could save your drone/model airplane from an unfortunate demise.

We believe this type of parachute would be most useful for those on a budget and people who are just getting into the hobby.

We would appreciate your thoughts on what we have so far. Please, feel free to ask questions!

 

[Merv]

Here is how Ed does it.

 

[Hai-Lee]

Find attached a PDF on parachute design for models. I use it as my go to reference. Sadly I cannot remember where I downloaded it from.

Have fun!

 

[PsyBorg]

I have several thoughts on this. First and foremost is proper terminology.

"Drone" is a generalized label used by clueless government officials and media driven sheeples.

If you want to sell products to people actually in the hobby / profession start using the distinctions "fixed wing" and "multi rotor craft". That will at least give the impression you have half a clue and may actually have a viable product and are not another bandwagoneer jumping on the "drone" money drain train.

Chutes for fixed wing craft is fairly straight forward. Basically weight capabilities and depmoyment methods. In every case added weight is already a problem when getting things to fly.

As for multi rotor craft the racing and freestyle communities will not be interested as again weight is an issue. On top of that is space is at a premium to mount necessary gear so not much left for any non essential payloads.

That leaves you with aerial photography craft in the multi rotor community.

Most of those will be custom built for a specific task and gear. Thus add ons would need to be as needed custom builds. Unless you wanna mass produce like others for dji products which would probably require special brand licencing to do which is why existing gear is as expensive as it is.

Bottom line is a parachute in this hobby is gonna be a small fraction of a niche community.