The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 10, 2003
Filed:
May. 11, 2001
Richard J. Benney, Stow, MA (US);
Glen J. Brown, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
A soft landing assembly for a parachute includes an altitude sensor mounted on the parachute and a control assembly mounted on the parachute for activating parachute landing velocity affectors at preselected altitudes detected by the altitude sensor. A first of the parachute landing velocity affectors is an automatic riser slip actuator for providing a riser slip, and thereby horizontal velocity reduction at an optimum time and in an optimum direction. A second of the parachute landing velocity affectors is an automatic pneumatic muscle retraction actuator for providing vertical retraction of a parachutist, and thereby vertical velocity reduction of the parachutist, at an optimum time prior to impact with ground.