automatic opener history PART 2

[chuteshack 4]

the second version of the sentinel was all newly manufactured , but again was just a simple altitude switch(1000 FT ACTIVATION ALTITUDE) which was manually turned on or off. this version had no altimeter and was designed to fit into the stopwatch hole on the instrument panel(which was mounted on top of your front mounted reserve).introduced in 1964. about 1965 the Sentry was introduced. it was a rate switch which mounted piggyback on the bottom of the sentinel .it would automatically turn the unit on when you reached 30% of terminal velocity and off when you slowed to less than 30% of terminal. it used the same power ripcord and cartridge that the original sentinel did

[patworks 5]

Chuteshack, this may help you with your article:

KAP– 3, automatic parachute activation device (AAD)


Developed in the USSR in the 1950’s the mechanical KAP 3 is the earliest functional AAD known. For decades, the Soviet KAP 3 AAD was the only sensible device for parachuting. For example, in the USA, the similar USAF high-altitude bail-out AAD was hardwired to open at 14,000 feet ASL making that device impractical for civilian jumps.

KAP -3 is a Warsaw Pact AAD. A highly reliable device, all Soviet manned capsules and cosmonauts’ carried redundant KAP3s. You can check them out at the Smithsonian or the Boeing Museum. There are two-each of them mounted on the frame of a Soviet re-entry space capsule on display at the Boeing Air Museum in Seattle.... They were part of the kit for many drop zones around the world including wide use across America in the 50s -60s -70s.

KAP 3 was the Czech designation where they were manufactured, the Soviets called them PPK 3. You can still see them on rigs in Russia and eastern non-EU Europe. Long lifecycle and very reliable durable devices, don't "time expire" after a few years.

The AAD was mechanical and installed on the MAIN, and it fired on every jump, at the preset altitude. Basically, it was a "pin puller" type of AAD. Prior to parachuting one would wind the pin-puller like a mechanical clock. Some skydivers (in Checksolvia use KAP on the main canopy and Cypress on reserve. An Australian drop zone reports, “We have KAPs AND Cypress on our student Telesis SOS systems, possibly overkill but the KAP seems pretty simple to install on the single ripcord rigs we use, they do need regular maintenance though as the fire off on every jump.”

A typical KAP3 jump looked like this: -- Let's say you jumped from 10,000 feet. The safety pin was inserted into the AAD. The AAD was "armed" (by pulling the AAD's "pin puller" cable to some extension on the ground and locking it in this "pulled" position). You hooked up the safety pin's lanyard to the airplane (much like you hook up a static line to the airplane). When you jumped, the lanyard extracted the pin from the AAD, and the AAD started it's 5-second countdown (you could hear the mechanism "rolling"). It then stopped after the 4-th second, and waited until you reach the pressure altitude of however many feet you'd pre-set. It then fired after one second, whether your main was out of container or not.

Company Name AAD Model/Name
Airtec GmbH Cypres
Advanced Aerospace Designs VIGIL
FXC Corporation Astra
FXC Corporation Model 12000
Steve Snider Enterprises (SSE) Sentinel Sentinel
Irvin Industries of Canada Hitefinder
Mikrotechna Praha a.s. KAP 3p
MarS Marsjev.cz MPAAD

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Developed from Dropzone.com posts and other references. Thank you all!

Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,