![Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104B at Arlanda, July 1968](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Aeroflot_Tupolev_Tu-104B_at_Arlanda%2C_July_1968.jpg)
A drogue parachute is a
parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...
designed for deployment from a rapidly-moving object. It can be used for various purposes, such as to decrease speed, to provide control and stability, or as a pilot parachute to deploy a larger parachute. Vehicles that have used drogue parachutes include multi-stage parachutes, aircraft, and
spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...
recovery systems.
The drogue parachute was invented by the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n professor and parachute specialist
Gleb Kotelnikov
Gleb Yevgeniyevich Kotelnikov (Russian: ''Глеб Евгеньевич Котельников'', – November 22, 1944), was the Russian-Soviet inventor of the knapsack parachute (first in the hard casing and then in the soft pack), and brakin ...
in 1912, who also invented the
knapsack parachute
A backpack—also called knapsack, schoolbag, rucksack, rucksac, pack, sackpack, booksack, bookbag or backsack—is, in its simplest frameless form, a fabric sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders ...
. The
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
introduced its first aircraft fitted with drogue parachutes during the mid 1930s; use of the technology expanded during and after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. A large number of
jet-powered
Jet propulsion is the propulsion of an object in one direction, produced by ejecting a jet of fluid in the opposite direction. By Newton's third law, the moving body is propelled in the opposite direction to the jet. Reaction engines operating o ...
aircraft have been furnished with drogue parachutes, including the
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air ...
strategic bomber
A strategic bomber is a medium- to long-range penetration bomber aircraft designed to drop large amounts of air-to-ground weaponry onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating the enemy's capacity to wage war. Unlike tactical bombers, ...
and the
Eurofighter Typhoon
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo ...
multirole aircraft
A multirole combat aircraft (MRCA) is a combat aircraft intended to perform different roles in combat. These roles can include air to air combat, air support,
aerial bombing, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and suppression of air defen ...
; they were also commonly used within crewed space vehicle recovery programmes, including
Project Mercury
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
and
Project Gemini
Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...
. The drogue parachute has also been extensively used upon
ejection seat
In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the aircraft pilot, pilot or other aircrew, crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an ex ...
s as a means of stabilisation and deceleration.
History
The drogue parachute was first used during 1912 in a ground-based parachute test in the absence of airplanes, by Russian inventor
Gleb Kotelnikov
Gleb Yevgeniyevich Kotelnikov (Russian: ''Глеб Евгеньевич Котельников'', – November 22, 1944), was the Russian-Soviet inventor of the knapsack parachute (first in the hard casing and then in the soft pack), and brakin ...
, who had patented a one of early canister-packed
knapsack parachute
A backpack—also called knapsack, schoolbag, rucksack, rucksac, pack, sackpack, booksack, bookbag or backsack—is, in its simplest frameless form, a fabric sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders ...
a few months before this test. On a road near
Tsarskoye Selo
Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the cen ...
(now part of
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
), Kotelnikov successfully demonstrated the braking effects of such a parachute by accelerating a
Russo-Balt automobile to its top speed and then opening a parachute attached to the back seat.
![Ar 234B Drogue Chute Location](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Ar_234B_Drogue_Chute_Location.jpg)
During 1937, the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
decided to adopt the drogue parachute for the first time upon a limited number of their aircraft, specifically those assigned to operate within the
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
to provide logistical support for the famous
polar expedition
Polar exploration is the process of exploration of the polar regions of Earth – the Arctic region and Antarctica – particularly with the goal of reaching the North Pole and South Pole, respectively. Historically, this was accompli ...
s of the era, such as the first
drifting ice station
A drifting ice station is a temporary or semi-permanent facility built on an ice floe. During the Cold War the Soviet Union and the United States maintained a number of stations in the Arctic Ocean on floes such as Fletcher's Ice Island for rese ...
s
North Pole-1
North Pole-1 (russian: Северный полюс-1) was the world's first Soviet manned drifting station in the Arctic Ocean, primarily used for research.
North Pole-1 was established on 21 May 1937 and officially opened on 6 June, some from ...
, which was launched that same year. The drogue parachute was credited with enabling airplanes to land safely on smaller
ice-floes that were otherwise unfeasible landing sites.
One of the earliest production-standard military aircraft to use a drogue parachute to slow down and shorten its landings was the
Arado Ar 234
The Arado Ar 234 ''Blitz'' (English: lightning) is a jet-powered bomber designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Arado. It was the world's first operational turbojet-powered bomber, seeing service during the latter half of the ...
, a
jet-powered
Jet propulsion is the propulsion of an object in one direction, produced by ejecting a jet of fluid in the opposite direction. By Newton's third law, the moving body is propelled in the opposite direction to the jet. Reaction engines operating o ...
reconnaissance-bomber used by the
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
. Both the trolley-and-skid undercarriage series of eight prototypes for the never-produced Ar 234A series — one on the aircraft, and a separate system on the aft surface of the trolley's main axle — and the tricycle undercarriage-equipped Ar 234B production series were fitted with a drogue parachute deployment capability in the extreme rear ventral fuselage.
During the
space race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...
between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, drogue parachutes were adopted on numerous spacecraft. Several human space programmes managed by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
, including
Project Mercury
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
and
Project Gemini
Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...
, employed drogue parachutes in their vehicle recovery systems. Numerous other space-oriented organisations, such as
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
and
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab is a public American aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider, with a New Zealand subsidiary. The company operates lightweight Electron orbital rockets, which provide dedicated launches for small satellites. Rocket Lab also ...
, have similarly adopted drogue chutes as part of their recovery systems.
Design and characteristics
![A-4 chute](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/A-4_chute.jpg)
In comparison to a conventional parachute, the drogue parachute is more elongated and has a far smaller surface area; as a result, it provides far less
drag. The drogue parachute can be deployed at speeds at which conventional parachutes would be torn apart, although it will not slow an object as much as a conventional parachute would do. Due to its simpler design, the drogue parachute is also easier to deploy, minimizing the risk of becoming tangled while unfolding or failing to inflate properly.
Use
Parachuting
Drogue parachutes are sometimes used to deploy a main or reserve parachute by using the drag generated by the drogue to pull the main parachute out of its container. Such a drogue is referred to as a
pilot chute
A pilot chute is a small auxiliary parachute used to deploy the main or reserve parachute. The pilot chute is connected by a bridle to the deployment bag containing the parachute. Pilot chutes are a critical component of all modern skydiving and B ...
when used in a single user (sports) parachute system. The pilot chute is only used to deploy the main or reserve parachute; it is not used for slowing down or for stability.
Tandem
Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction.
The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...
systems are different; a drogue is so deployed shortly after exiting the aircraft as to reduce the terminal velocity of the pair of tandem jumpers. It is later used to deploy the main parachute as on
sports systems.
Numerous innovations and improvements have been made to drogue parachutes intended for this purpose; examples include a
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
for an anti-spinning feature granted during 1972, and improved force distribution granted in 2011.
Deceleration
![Tarlton-Drag racing-002](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Tarlton-Drag_racing-002.jpg)
When used to shorten an aircraft's landing, a drogue chute is called a drag parachute or braking parachute. They are particularly useful for landings on wet or icy runways and for high speed emergency landing.
Braking parachutes are also employed to slow down cars during
drag racing
Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most c ...
; the
National Hot Rod Association
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is a drag racing governing body, which sets rules in drag racing and hosts events all over the United States and Canada. With over 40,000 drivers in its rosters, the NHRA claims to be the largest motorspo ...
(NHRA) requires their installation on all vehicles able to attain speeds of 150 miles per hour or greater. They have also been installed on multiple experimental vehicles intended to conduct
land speed record
The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regula ...
attempts.
Stability
Drogue parachutes may also be used to help stabilise direction of an object in flight, such as a thrown
RKG-3 anti-tank grenade
RKG-3 is a series of Soviet anti-tank hand grenades. It superseded the RPG-43, RPG-40 and RPG-6 series of grenades. It entered service in 1950, and was still being used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan into the 2000s and 2010s, against the v ...
. It is often used to gain control of very fast descents, including those of spacecraft during
atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...
, examples include the
Boeing X-37
The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the United Stat ...
spaceplane.
It has been used for similar purposes when applied to several nuclear bombs, such as the
B61 and
B83, slowing the weapon's descent to provide the aircraft that dropped it enough time to escape the nuclear blast. In 2022,
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab is a public American aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider, with a New Zealand subsidiary. The company operates lightweight Electron orbital rockets, which provide dedicated launches for small satellites. Rocket Lab also ...
utilized a drogue chute to slow the descent of its
Electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...
booster's primary stage, after which the stage was hooked mid-descent by a helicopter.
Drogue parachutes have found use on
ejection seat
In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the aircraft pilot, pilot or other aircrew, crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an ex ...
s to both stabilise and to slow down almost immediately following deployment, examples include the
ACES II personal escape system. Similarly, a number of escape capsules, used on both supersonic aircraft and spacecraft, have employed drogue parachutes both for stability and braking, allowing either a main chute to be deployed or for the pilot to exit the capsule and use a personal parachute. Some high altitude rockets have used drogue chutes as part of a dual-deployment system, subsequently deploying a main parachute to control and slow their descent.
See also
*
Air brake (aircraft)
In aeronautics, air brakes or speed brakes are a type of flight control surface used on an aircraft to increase the drag on the aircraft. Air brakes differ from spoilers in that air brakes are designed to increase drag while making littl ...
*
Drogue
A drogue (also known as a storm drogue) is a device trailed behind a boat on a long line attached to the stern. A drogue is used to slow the boat down in a storm and to prevent the hull (watercraft), hull from becoming side-on to the water waves ...
*
Sea anchor
A sea anchor (also known as a parachute anchor, drift anchor, drift sock, para-anchor or boat brake) is a device that is streamed from a boat in heavy weather. Its purpose is to stabilize the vessel and to limit progress through the water. ...
References
External links
* Marine parachute drogue
PTK-10SK Parachute braking systemPTK-29SK Parachute braking systemPTK-25 Parachute braking systemPTK-10240-65 series 2 Parachute braking system
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drogue Parachute
Aircraft components
Parachuting
Russian inventions
Articles containing video clips