The Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS™) is standard equipment on every Cirrus aircraft. The parachute system is designed to protect occupants in the event of an emergency by lowering the aircraft to the ground after deployment. CAPS™ revolutionised general aviation safety by providing an additional measure of safety to occupants, similar in theory to the role of airbags in automobiles.
Cirrus invited Vorticity to collaborate with them in the review of their CAPS™ whole aircraft recovery system with the aim of helping to advance the system to support aircraft with higher weights.
In addition to providing design support for the parachute and simulation of the recovery event including full aircraft aerodynamics, Vorticity supported two test series. Vorticity designed and developed instrumentation which was used in testing to gather data on the payload trajectory dynamics to allow detailed analysis of parachute performance.