|
|
Slide 20 of 65
|
|
|
|
Slide 20 of 65
SMALL AIRDROP RESUPPLY HAS GOT TO BE THROWAWAY AND INEXPENSIVE OR IT AIN'T GOING TO BE DONE!
Retired Colonel Chuck Warren, an Army Combat Infantryman and fixed-wing Aviator who has done air resupply by Bird Dog aircraft in Vietnam himself has come up with the definitive solution that enables almost any under 60 pound cargo to be dropped with a slow descent using the cardboard rotors of a helicopter instead of a costly parachute.
www.dropmaster.com/pages/686308/index.htm
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dropmaster/dropmaster.htm
The CopterBox: A Lightweight, Disposable Air Cargo Delivery System
The CopterBox can deliver up to 100 pounds of emergency supplies from a wide variety of aircraft with drop speeds of up to 130 knots. The corrugated paper box employs three rotor blades that use the principle of autorotative lift to slow it and its payload to a gradual descent prior to ground contact. The CopterBox can delay opening its descent rotors for High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) insertions so the delivery aircraft can stay well above enemy air defense weapons as we did at An Loc in Vietnam.
The CopterBox makes economic sense in applications where a parachute would not be practical or prudent. The CopterBox requires very little time and training to pack and rig prior to launch.
A welded wire rotor hub is used to protect the box prior to launch and to withstand the aerodynamic and centrifugal forces of flight during descent.
Please email us with your questions and comments. Videos of developmental testing and a brochure are available via the link below or via CD-ROM. We need your input.
U.S. Patent 5,947,419
Video & Brochure Download:
To see our video, brochure, pictures, news and our white paper, click HERE.
Call us for pricing information! We are now taking orders for our current configuration.
Contact Information:
DropMaster, Inc.
3600 Abernathy Drive
Fayetteville, NC 28311
(910)630-DBOX (3269)
copterbox@dropmaster.com
Charles V. Warren, President
(910) 630-2997
www.defensetech.org/archives/001059.html
"COPTERBOX" FOR MEDS, SUPPLIES
A few weeks back, we looked at the Army's "medical missile" for shooting supplies to wounded Soldiers in hot zones. Well, apparently, there's more than one flying first aid kit out there.
With funding from the Army, Fayetteville, NC's DropMaster, Inc. has developed a "CopterBox" -- a fast-spinning, cardboard cylinder equipped with rotating blades -- that can be used to airdrop supplies to Soldiers in need.
Chuck it out of a helicopter or a plane, and the CopterBox will slow a 60 lb. payload to 34 feet per second. And "since it spins at about 400 RPM, it cuts through trees and always reaches the ground, unlike parachute-based systems," writes DropMaster's engineering director Chase Warren. Plus, the things are cheap, Chase says: just $300 a pop.
But right now, the Pentagon ain't buying, Chase complains. Despite a small business grant from the Army -- and nine years of work by "my father, 5 other people and me" -- Chase says the answer has been the same from every branch of the U.S. military he's approached: "We don't have a requirement for your concept. No one has come to us asking for this."
THERE'S MORE: The Australian military has been using a similar product for years, notes Defense Tech reader GK.
www.defence.gov.au/news/raafnews/editions/4401/story01.htm
These "heliboxes" have maximum weight of just 7.5 kg, he says, but they're just right for rations, water, and the like.
Posted by noahmax at August 13, 2004 12:32 AM
***************************************
Copterbox has this all solved!
And its PRECISE without expensive GPS electronics to steer parachutes.
What are we waiting for?
