Pioneer Aerospace Corporation is an aerodynamic deceleration manufacturer.
Pioneer has designed and manufactured
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 ...
s and
parafoil
A parafoil is a nonrigid (textile) airfoil with an aerodynamic cell structure which is inflated by the wind. Ram-air inflation forces the parafoil into a classic wing cross-section. Parafoils are most commonly constructed out of ripstop nylon.
T ...
s for numerous
NASA missions.
History
Pioneer Aerospace Corporation began production in 1938. In 1988, Pioneer become a part of Zodiac's Aerosafety Systems Group. Pioneer's main factory and distribution centers are located in
Columbia, Mississippi and
Bloomfield, Connecticut
Bloomfield is a suburb of Hartford in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The town's population was 21,535 at the 2020 census. Bloomfield is best known as the headquarters of healthcare services company Cigna.
History
Originally land ...
. On December 1st, 2018
Safran
Safran S.A. is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures aircraft engines, rocket engines as well as various aerospace and defense-related equipment or their components. It was formed by a merger between SNECMA and ...
acquired Zodiac Aerospace as Safran Aerosystems. The company is one of the largest aerodynamic deceleration manufacturers in the world.
NASA
Pioneer Aerospace Corporation has designed and manufactured recovery systems for numerous NASA missions, including: the
Galileo probe, the
Space Shuttle, the
Mars Pathfinder missions, the
Genesis solar-sample mission, the
Stardust Comet Intercept Probe, and the
Mars Exploration Rovers. In 1999, Pioneer manufactured, at the time, the world's largest parafoil (7,500 square ft.) for the
X-38 Crew Return Vehicle
The X-38 was an experimental re-entry vehicle designed by NASA to research a possible emergency crew return vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station (ISS). The 1995–2002 program also developed concepts for a crew return vehicle design ...
, an emergency return capsule for the crew of the
International Space Station.
Bed & Breakfast Association of Mississippi (website); ''Visit Mississippi One Porch at a Time''
References
{{reflist
Aerospace companies of the United States