47 air despatch brize norton

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Market Sector. Interserve Construction. Project Details. Dropping in single or two rows is initiated by cutting a webbing retaining strap or using wireless release mechanism and the loads simply fall out of the back as the aircraft pitches up and a static line deploys the parachute.

A number of variations exist that use different packing materials and for different loads. Small loads can be deployed as door bundles and CDS bundles are generally no more than 1 tonne but can include quad bikes, small boats and light engineering plant. Personnel on the ground then recover the stores, most of the time the pallet will land the right way up, but not always. Because the skid boards do not have forklift slots, the job on the ground cannot be assisted with mechanical handling equipment, unfortunately.

Accuracy and speed of delivery is said to be much improved with dispersion reduced by two thirds. The RAF delivered over 14, tonnes of food aid using this method, a method pioneered in the Nepal famine relief operations. In the RAF tested a systems called Snowdrop from GR Woodford Co that combined two sachets into a single pack, one sachet containing a dehydrated stew and the other, a vitamin and mineral rich fruit drink.

These were packed 24 to a carton and when the carton entered the aircraft slipstream it would break up and allow the sachets to fall to the ground. Read the patent here. TRIADS is very simply, a cardboard box that is launched into the aircrafts slipstream at high altitude where a tether rips open the box, allowing the individual food or water packets to fall to the ground. Because they are deployed at high altitude the aircraft is not placed under the same risk as for low level free drop methods.

There is still some risk for people on the ground, not least from the plywood skidboard, which makes its use unlikely in some situations. Each contains a water pouch and energy bar. A single C could drop , HOPE packages in a single pass and dispenses with the cardboard box completely.

Although not strictly air dropping, a transport aircraft can land, slow to taxi speeds and simply roll cargo pallets or vehicles off the ramp. The cargo, usually on L pallets or equivalent, is simply picked up by ground forces and the aircraft flies off. If no runway exists the aircraft can still fly at very low altitude less than 10m and offload cargo pallets, bundles or vehicles using a number of low or zero altitude extraction systems in which the cargo is dragged out of the aircraft by drogue chutes or arrestor wires.

Vertical descent speeds are very low but the cargo will have the same horizontal speed as the aircraft which will need retarding. To improve survivability aircraft are forced to drop at night and from higher altitudes and speeds, this results in dramatically reduced accuracy and dispersion of loads. Using GPS guidance and parafoil type parachutes loads can also be launched some distance from the target point.

It could deliver a 1,kg payload within 50m of the target from stand off distances and high altitude with the Dutch MoD being the launch customer.

The German Luftwaffe have used the Paralander in Afghanistan where it was cleared for use on the C A Paralander can deliver up to 1,kg loads 26 nautical miles 50km from the launch point.

Looking at these videos what is interesting is that some of the designs use a parafoil parachute to get to within the drop zone after which it is collapsed or de-reefed and a conventional round parachute deployed for the final journey to earth. Less well known but equally critical is the JPAD Mission Planning software which is run on a standard ruggedised Panasonic Toughbook laptop and is used to collate data about the payload, weather and other variables to ensure the correct drop point is selected.

To verify weather conditions a drop sonde is used that relays atmospheric information back to the mission planning software which uses the data to calculate the optimum release point. For a detailed overview of PADS, click here. The second video is an overview from QinetiQ. The RAF video also shows one of my hobby horses, the lack of containerisation and materials handling vehicles meaning that the 20 personnel had to work all night to recover 60 tonnes of rations, that is for another post.

The UAV flies ahead of the cargo aircraft so that it does not have to fly over the drop zone as it does when manually dropping the sonde. No amount of precision can help though, if the ground conditions are such that enemy forces have access to the drop zones, as this recent video from the Middle East shows. Whilst the Container Delivery System CDS is robust and effective it is expensive so unless the equipment can be can be returned it is a significant overhead and in many cases, the packaging will cost more than the contents.

The reverse supply chain for CDS equipment also meant there would end up being a significant and expensive stock holding of parachutes, bags and securing items at remote forward locations. These locations had enough on their plate without managing CDS equipment and so the need arose for a much cheaper, single use system. Not having to recover the parachute and other materials simplifies logistics planning a great deal. The Low-Cost, Low-Altitude LCLA aerial resupply programme required system that allowed supplies of up to 75kg to be dropped from low altitude low speed aircraft fixed wing or rotary.

LCLA bundles are small and designed to be handled without mechanical handling equipment, between kg and kg and can be dropped from smaller aircraft like a CASA All types of equipment for all types of requirement, high, low, medium, low velocity, high velocity. Part 1 — Introduction and General Principles. Part 2 — Pallets.

Part 3 — Containers and Flatracks. Part 4 — Container and Flatrack Handling. Part 5 — Boxes. Part 6 — Air Transport Pallets and Containers. Part 7 — Air Despatch. Part 9 — Trucks and Trailers. Part 10 — More Thoughts on Trucks and Trailers. Email Address. If you are currently a ParaData member please login. If you are not currently a ParaData member but wish to get involved please register. Profits from all sales made through our shop go directly to Support Our Paras , so every purchase you make with us will directly benefit The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces.

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