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Slug: Both security and Pioneer came oout with a Piggyback with a removeable reserve. The Reserve pack was attached to the main pack with a heavy duty zipper. It was a gimick by Pioneer to sell Piggyback rigs. Security responded to keep them in check. The Pioneer design staff lacked imagination according to DanAbbott. He sead," They could design a roll of toilet paper without getting crap on there hands! 26 ft.ConicalQuote

Gentlemen; Shortly after the world meet he got one of the US Team XBOs. He was an exponent of the XBO. Blue skies, 26ft conical

rioggerrob: One of the projects I had at Guardian Parachute was the design od a High Glide Tavtical Parachute for HAHO operations in 1982. My approach to trhe equation P=L/D, Performance =lift over drag. The higher thae number the better the performance. In the design specification we had drafted we were going to attack radar signature, noise and the highest possible p factor with a gross weight of 360 lbs. The MT1X and the MTXX built by ParaFlite had a glide ratio of 1.99:1. So sitting in the saddle at 25000 ft the maximum distance the Jumper could travel was 1.99 X 25000/ 5280=9.42mile in still air. Their main and reserve canopies were 360 sq.ft in area. Paraflites approach was to maximize lift in the equation and they used the Lissamann Airfoil High lift ,high drag, The Paraflites system weighed 56 lbs. including double O2 bottles. My approach was different, I attacked drag, reduce drag to the absolute minimum. I set the angle of attack at -10 degrees to the vertical which set the canopy in flight at 0 degress and minimum footprint. Ater a lengthy study of aspect ratio and drag settled on an aspect ratio of 2.77:1 (Paraflite was 2:1) The higher the aspect ratio the shorter the chord and the thinner the airfoil. the span was 27.7 ft, with 9 cells and the chord of 10 ft. The depth of the airfoil was 22" (MTXX=56") Main and resrve canopies had identical performance. Lyle Cameron did the flight testing. When all was done we had performance of, best case 5.12 : 1 and worst case 4.77 : 1. The system weight 34 pounds and was stronger than the MT1XX . In still air sitting in the saddle at 25000 ft the Mach III Alpha would glide 22.85 miles worst case. Best case, 24.24 miles. In full flight, balls out the ground speed was 59 mph and could be modulated to ZERO! Try as we may, we never sold any to the US Military, as of August 1988. But I sold them to Japan,Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India and Mexico. One of the guys that did some testing,was a great guy, Jerry Bourquin. What a sweetheat! Blue skies, 26ftconical.

Gentlemen: There are two types of deployment of a canopy; 1. canopy first, lines second. With this type of deployment, malfunction can and do occur with a higher. what often occurs is the canopy start inflating before line stretch. If the filling is asymetrical (Off center), you can count on line-over malfunction. I have seen in testing when the canopy is lifted off the pack asuction occurs and the lines are unstow in masse. Line entanglements, burning as the tension is applied to the system as line stretch occurs. Line stretch is were the canopy mass has decelerated and the jumper mass is still the original velocity. The parachute system will stretch until the elastic force is reached the changing canopy mass is reaccerated and the jumper is decelerated and equilibrium is attain in the system. There are two forces on opening, line stretch and opening. The smaller the pilot chute in mass(pilot chute and included air.) the less force in the line stretch and the greater opening force. The pilot chute has not decelerated the system sufficiently at line stretch. The canopy /include air have not been sufficiently. The snatch force at line stretch has to be increased with a more effective pilot chute. Stronger stowage loops or rubber bubber bands double will help prevent the lines beig sucked off the pack tray. 2. Lines first, canopy last. This requires the use of a sleeve or a deployment bag. The sequence Pilot extracts the sleeve or bag. The suspension lines are deployed under tension.Pilot chute bridle sleeve/bag lines, risers jumper. Tension is maintained from the pilot chute through the system during the deployment sequence. Strong rubber bands should always be used. The more the deployment sequence is controlled, the better the deployment with less the opening force. I prefer bags to sleeves and line stowage pockets nice and snug, uniform deployment and force is implemented with each set iof lines being unstowed. The stowing of the lines is more work, but it works better. Blue skies, 26ftconical

wartload: The design and patents of the towable parachute were held at EFA France. EFA licensed Pioneer to make the towable parachute in the USA. As with all towable canopiesthere were no brakes. Loy Brydon took the CROSSBOW informatiom to Pioneer. Blue skies, 26ftconical

Ladies and Gentlemen; Security bought 10000 yds of low porosity 1.1 oz ripstop in five colors. Ludlow asked Dan Abbott what was he going to do with all that LoPo fabric. With the XBO the tracker are not selling we have had two orders for the Tracker rig and we still have a lot left. Dan asked Ludlow if he had any ideas? Ludlow said I would like to jump one made with that LoPo cloth. Dan OKed Ludlow suggestion and ordered a work order made up for one Test canopy. Ludlow added,"If this thing does what I think it will, itwill make one helluva reserve canopy. And that is how the 26ft LoPo came into being. Blue skies, 26ftconical

Jerry: I assume you bought the sleeve from Eddie Brown. He would buy them from us 50 at a time. There was a Great Guy! We finally shortened the XBO sleeve to fit the P.C. At Fresno in 1964, Herman Weber from pioneer was there checking the slots on the XBO to see if they were louvered. They tested the P.C.and XBO side by side the glide, rate of descent, the XBO had better brakes and cold fly backward. But the Xbo had this slight lateral oscillation. Looking forward to May 22cd. Blue skies, 26ftconical.

SkiD_PL8; The Crossbow was the very first Parachute designed for the sport parachutist. It brought color choice to the sport jumper plus inovations that never existed. The people had a helluva time convincing jumpers that the piggy back was safer and quicker deployment of the reserve parachute. Aside from fact that all rigs today are piggybacks and that heritage came from the Crossbow and a gamble that Security took change sport parachuting. By the way you could do a 360 turn with the Crossbow in 1.8 seconds. It was a hugh leap forward. It could do everything the P.C. could do and could fly backwards 4 mph, the PC could do that. Blue skies, 26ftconical

Part 18. Dan Abbott had looked at the P.C. and saw the long sleevthat went frm the skirt to the end of the roof bridlelines. He asked " How is the opening?" Loy had replied, "A little hard." Dan said, "I would think so." And walked away. Dan said the were having skirt openings and they instaneous high G opening. At terminal the men around 15 to 20 g, and 30 to 40 for the women. It is a function of the force divided by the persons weight. The force is a function of velocity at opening. When every body got their P.Cs. the girl started complaing that the harness shock was hurting them. Some had demanded we add more padding on the saddle and chest strap. There was no amount of explaining that the forces they were getting had nothing to do with the harness, that it was the long Pioneer sleeve. They eventully got the Crossbow Sleeve through the efforts of Susie Clements. this ended Security's experience with PCA. Dan has not talked Loy since. The U.S.Team won the world meet in Austria in 1964. The moral of the story is, "Be careful who you deal with." In the future, Security had their own teams, The Thunderbow Team and The Sierra Team. The Sierra Main Canopy was the 24 ft Protoype Crossbow made with 1 oz sero porosity fabric. You could put is in a shoe box! End of Story.

Part 17. The vote. The 19 Crossbow systems were delivered to the U.S.Team in Fresno by John Maggi and Dan Abbott. The Team then jumped the Crossbows with the exception of Loy Brydon, he jumped the Paracommander in place of the Crossbow main canopy. Several other members also jumped the P.C., then they had a secret vote. All of the members voted for the Crossbow harness and container. Seventeen voted for the PC and two voted for the Crossbow, Susie Clements and Jerry Bourquin. I said to John, it does not matter. We have a signed agreement! Deke Sonnichsen was in a bad situation. He had a mutiny on his hands. John asked Dan what he thought, "We have an agreement! They are obligated to use Security Crossbow equipment, if not we take all the stuff home." Discussion went back and forth with the Team set on the P.C. and the Cross harness and container. Dan was pissed and flatly stated, "You must abide by the Agreement." After about an hour or so, John Maggi said OK." Loy Brydon won, and Security was stuck. Security furnished everything but the Main canopy., The story is not over. End of Part 17.

Part 16. The people later that Loy went PCA headquarters in Monterey, California and talked to the PCA Director and got a ticket to Pioneer Parachute Company. while there he had them modify the Paracommander and showed them how to put the brakes on the Canopy, The people at Security did not know this until they got to Fresno Caifornia where the U.S.Team was holding practice and training. Dan Abbott Redrew th canpy drawing made a new set of patterns for the canopy, sleeve and main pack flaps. The redesigned Crossbow prototype was made and some flight tests were made and it was determined the redesigned canopy had a slight lateral oscillation, but severe enough that it could interfer with accuracy in spot landings. There was virtually no data on canopies with zero porosity fabric. Stability would have be restored through experiments with slotting until stability was restored. Dan changed to fabric in the crown area to standard porosity 1.1 oz nylonfabric,. Security ran out of time, the canopies had to be made for the team. End of Part 16.

Part 15. Troubles. When All the testing and the production was to start Dan had a meeting with Loy Brydon. Loy asked for a split saddle, At no time had this ever been brought up. Dan argued with Loy that every thing was set and this would require making anew set of main lift webs. THis was one of those Ah Shit! situations. After about 15 minutes of arguments, Dan relented and said,"OK." Now the other shoe was dropped! Loy wanted the Crossbow main canopy redesigned to lower the rate of descent from 14 ft/seond ti 13 ft/second for the jumpe weight of 180 pounds. Dan said, "It's too late for that now, all the testing has been done, it would require a whole new set of drawings and pattern. All the testing would need to be repeated, all thr load, functional and performance test . The main pack flaps, the sleeve. It canm't be done!" I want it to done,and I am going to talk too John." Loy walked out of the Lunch room to John's office with Dan at his heels. In John'office Loy stated his demands. Dan reminded Loy of a statement that Loy said in a restrurant In Taft after the Tracking and rate of descent tests, Dan said, "Loy, I want to remind of what you said in Taft. when "I ask you how to you rate the Crossbow main?" And you replied, "It is the best parachute I have ever jumped!" And I then asked, "Better than the Paracommander?" And you said, "Hell yes, you can't slow it down, it does not have brakes." Loy's response was, "I want the rate of descent reduce by one foot!" The argument went on for abour 10 to 15 minutes. The John said, "Dan, just do it.!" Shortly after the meeting, Loy left. It was not over. End of Part !5.

Part 14. I amgoing to digress for a moment. After the first cutaway by Loy Brydon, every wanted to do it. The final thing designby Dan, was the rucksack. Previouely all parachute carrying bags just had hanles to carry it by. On the Crossbow carrying bag it had shoulder straps so you could carry the bag on you back. Another, never been done before. In late April 1964 all the TSO tests were completed and the application for C23b were applied for the Tracker reserve and the Crossbow reserve rig. All thre Team members were measured for custom fit harness. End of Part 14.

Part 13. With all the prototype test parachutes completed, In February 1964, drop test were performed to show acceptability for proper and acceptable deployment of the main and reserve systems. During the test jumps of the Crossbow Piggyback, appproved chest packwere used until the completion of the TSO tests on the reserve. The main system did not require a TSO but the were functionally and load tested to prove the system was acceptable for use. After the functioning test of the system, performance testing began and all testing for TSO compliance and submission to the FAA the Tracker System and the Crossbow systems were completed and the 19 systems were made for the U.S. Men and Womens team members. Susie Clements, Ludlow's wife and a U.S. Team member did some of the original test jumps to ascertain their use and control from the small woman aspect. During the testing phase Jerry Bourquin and Loy Brydon from the U,S,.Army and U.S.Parachute members, were made available to do the test jumping.Now the story gets interesting. End of Part 13.

Part 12. While the main canopy was being made, Dan designed a back up canopy for "just in Case" It was 28 ft.in diameter, block constructed with a center lines. in red and black 2.25 oz zero porosity nylon ripstop. The same material in the The Crossbow Main. John went an antique store and came back with a Old Crossbow. He said I wanted to call this system,"Crossbow Piggyback System". There were two more names to come, both from Jon Maggi, The reserve handle the red handle became the "Lollypop", and the riser releases, became the "One Shot"a modification the Capewell Release. We tested every conceivable event to cause a possible failure to release. In all cases the risers released. After tests, the harness and container was suspended from risers in the Packing Area , with only the weight of the packed reserve in the reserve container. The rig was tested 100 times affecting the release the rig would drop 5' into a 3' x4' basket and every time the pilot chute deployed free of the basket. during this period every joint in the canopies, riser tested to destruction to determines the acceptability of the design, No part required redesign. End of Part 12