andyhughes 0 #1 February 1, 2007 Planform design and line trim are always discussed when people talk about canopy choice and flight characteristics. This is helped by the amount of information the manufacturers publish for each of their canopies (e.g. aspect ratio, planform area, number of cells, line trim, line placing, leading edge taper, trailing edge taper, and more recently stabilizer design). The shape of the airfoil is pretty much always overlooked, even though it is at least as important as planform design, and details are not published by the manufacturers (for one reason or another). I'm interested to hear what foil designs are used, what specific characteristics (such as reflex etc) make a good parachute foil, and how skydiving canopy foils differ from paraglider and ram-air kite foils. The "PD foil" has been mentioned on here a few times, and Ive seen discussions about Precision foils (mainly the Xaos) and Big Air Sportz designs, but there has been little or no mention of the exact foil shapes used. I guess what I'm hoping for is a little inside knowledge, and hopefully there are people here that can help out with this or offer some suggestions regarding the design of parachute foils. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MikeD10834 0 #2 February 1, 2007 Think "Proprietary Information". Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andyhughes 0 #3 February 1, 2007 QuoteThink "Proprietary Information". Well, that could be argued about planform design too, but the manufactures aren't reserved about that. And from what i've seen, the parachute industry is less concerned with IPR than industries such in technology or engineering for example. I've always assumed it was because foil design principals are not very accessible to the general public, whereas with planform design and line trim etc is much easier to understand. Marketing canopies (or anything for that matter) in a way that potential customers can't easily understand is always going to be a non-starter. Anyway, not to digress into IPR discussions or marketing strategy banter... back to airfoils design... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andyhughes 0 #6 February 6, 2007 Ok, so there haven't been to many replies, so I'm going to try to throw this open a bit more... Does anyone have any ideas/guesses/opinions on the types of foils used on modern canopies? This could be in terms of the actual shape, or the flight characteristics. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darkwing 5 #7 February 6, 2007 Do what I did when I decided I was going to build canopies (a long time ago) -- go out and measure/inspect every different canopy you can find. This forum will not give you the answers you seek. -- Jeff My Skydiving History Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
phoenixlpr 0 #8 February 6, 2007 I don't design canopies. Those who design might not share here. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
