"Big chutes are already in place on 18,000 single-propeller planes. Jets, though, are so fast that a conventional parachute would get ripped to shreds. Engineers at Ballistic Recovery Systems of South St. Paul, Minn., think they’ve hit upon a solution: a parachute that doesn’t fully deploy until the plane has slowed from 450mph or so to a relatively safe 150mph. BRS, with a grant from NASA, expects to deliver a version for small business jets within three years. Vice president Dan Johnson sees no reason why the technology wouldn’t scale to commuter jets and even to full-size airliners. After all, parachutes routinely bring down the space shuttle’s twin solid-fuel rocket engines, which weigh 155,000 pounds each, about 35,000 pounds more than a Boeing 737. "
Re: “Engineers at Ballistic Recovery Systems of South St. Paul, Minn., think they’ve hit upon a solution: a parachute that doesn’t fully deploy until the plane has slowed from 450mph or so to a relatively safe 150mph.”
ThatÂ’s basically what our chute does, except for the 450mph thing. That ring below the chute gets pushed up toward the chute via wind drag, pulling the lines inward thus not letting the chute inflate all the way. After the plane slows down the ring drops down the lines allowing the chute to fully open. IÂ’m sure itÂ’s a matter of scaling things out right for the increases in speed and weight.