So I'm a freshman Aerospace Engineering student at GA Tech and last week our professor was away at a conference and we had a grad student teaching us. He told us a little bit about his research, which was to improve the accuracy of airdrops by adding control mechanisms to the leading edge of the parafoils used in airdrops. (Currently they are only on the trailing edge). He then showed us a few videos of him testing a small scale version.. the parafoil he used to test it? An Ozone flow!

Here is the take off:


And here is the landing:



Afterwards, I talked to him for a little bit and he mentioned they also tested using an imp quattro and a yakuza.

So yeah I thought it was interesting.

Also, I'm longing for some good kiting as I haven't really had a good session since early summer : \

A bigger kite would slow the descent and use less horsepower to take off. Cool application of the kites for sure. I need to talk someone into sponsoring a research grant for something using kite equipment............. Hmm.

looks cool

cool