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Modern day parachute

The modern day square canopy is far different from its predecessor, the round. You see, the round parachute is like having an inverted bowl over your head. It just cups air to slow the descent of the parachutist. More modern round canopies have steering slots cut into the back of the parachute allowing some air to escape thus giving the parachute some (very little) forward speed.

Ram-air parachute

During the 1970’s the square (ram-air) parachute was developed. The square canopy is still evolving and today’s square is extremely predictable and reliable and by far more fun to fly and land than the round.

Ram-air square parachute

Let’s get to know the square canopy. If you took a garbage bag and held it open into the wind - it would inflate. This is the basic theory that makes the square canopy work. So what we do is take nine of these garbage bags and sew them together side by side. Each of these garbage bags is called a cell. The openings on the front of the canopy are called the nose, while the back of the canopy that is sewn shut, is called the tail. Attached to the sides of the canopy are runners to keep it flying straight. These are called stabilizers. The suspension lines are attached to the bottom surface of the canopy.

Parachute cells

The student canopy consists of nine cells although some parachutes have 5 or 7. (A 9 cell canopy has greater forward speed and lands softer than a 5 cell canopy). In order to give the canopy forward speed, all we do is tilt it down in the front. We accomplish this by making the suspension lines shorter in the front than in the rear. The steering lines are attached to the rear two corners of the canopy. Therefore, when the canopy is flying forward and one of the steering lines is pulled down, the part of the canopy that is pulled down by the line creates drag against the wind that it is flying into (= the relative wind), thereby slowing down that side of the parachute. The other side of the parachute however is still flying at full speed so a turn is induced in the direction of the side that is pulled down. Pull right to go right and pull left to go left. It’s that simple.

Controlling the parachute

Not only do the steering toggles control the turning capabilities of the parachute, they also act as brakes. By pulling on both of the toggles, the entire tail of the canopy is pulled down inducing drag against the relative wind (the direction the wind is coming from) thereby slowing the forward speed of the parachute. With one’s hands all the way up, the student canopy will fly at approximately twenty miles per hour. By pulling the toggles all the way down, the canopy’s forward speed can be reduced to almost zero. By pulling the toggles only partially will slow the canopy accordingly. When the toggles are pulled one quarter of the way down, we call this quarter brakes. Halfway down would be half brakes and three quarters would equal three quarter brakes. All the way down would be called full brakes.