The founder of an aerospace company dedicated to manufacturing airframe parachutes for general aviation and legacy aircraft says that eventually such technology could even guard against sabotage virtually preventing catastrophes like this weeks Germanwings A320 crash.

Even though IATA, the global trade association for the airline industry, reassured a jittery flying public that air remains the safest way to travel, perhaps its time to take a hard look at airframe parachutes for commercial aircraft. That is, not for passengers buckled into the fuselage, but the aircraft itself.

The sky is going to get more and more crowded and there are going to be even more and more accidents, Boris Popov, Founder and CEO of Minneapolis-based BRS Aerospace, told Forbes. At some point, he says, major airframe manufacturers will be forced to include them as standard operating equipment to mitigate situations including: pilot incapacitation; mid-air collisions; mechanical failure; bird strikes; structural failure; pilot error; and even sabotage. Since 1993, Popovs company has been providing general aviation and a few aircraft legacy manufacturers with options for airframe parachutes. BRS notes that FAA-certified tests have shown that full parachute inflation could occur at altitudes as low as 260 feet and, thus far, notes that aircraft using his system have saved well over three hundred lives.

A recent BRS airframe parachute deployment during an airshow in Argentina. The pilot walked away unhurt. Credit: BRS Aerospace

The secret to our system, says Popov, is that it opens almost instantaneously. BRS rocket-propelled parachutes deploy from the back of the aircraft and accelerate to 100 mph. In less than a second, they provide a canopy that stretches tightly over the airframe. Once the aircraft is stable descends at a rate of some 21 feet-per-second which enables it to touchdown with an impact force akin to leaping to the ground from a height of roughly seven feet.

Cirrus and Flight Design already have BRS products as standard equipment and Popov says Cessna has made it an option on two of its models. He says his company has also tested systems capable of deploying parachute systems that can safely bring down 12 passenger commuter aircraft.

As for costs?

If our parachute tech exceeds 15 percent of the airplanes value, then buyers start to back off very quickly, said Popov.

But is the tech available to equip large Airbus- or Boeing Boeing-built turbofan jet aircraft flying at high altitude with cruise speeds pushing that of sound?

It basically requires a square foot of material to bring down one pound of aircraft, said Popov. For a 500,000-pound Boeing 757, youll need half a million square feet of parachute cloth.

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Airframe Parachutes Might Have Prevented The Germanwings Crash