Joseph Straka, founder and CEO of Stratos 07, the Czech Republic registered company which manufacturers the Magnum ballistic parachutes which the Sling is designed to incorporate, visited The Airplane Factory. Joseph’s generosity in providing a free parachute and rocket for testing purposes facilitated the testing of the modified ballistic parachute fitting arrangements. Stratos parachutes have, to date, been deployed in more than 100 real life ‘saves’.
On Saturday 1 May 2010 a Stratos ‘Magnum 601’ parachute fitted in The Airplane Factory’s serial no 003 Sling, used exclusively for testing, was deployed for test purposes. The deployment went off exactly as planned and in accordance with the design parameters. It seems clear that if the parachute had been deployed in a genuine emergency situation it would successfully have saved the life of the pilot and any passenger.
This test was particularly meaningful for James and Mike, who flew the production prototype Sling around the world, leaving just 10 days after her first flight. They completed the trip in the faith that if all else failed they would be able to rely upon the ballistic chute (not a Magnum chute!) as a last resort. Some months later, during advanced, multiple turn spin testing, the parachute handle was pulled and the parachute failed to deploy. Fortunately the pilots were both wearing personal emergency parachutes, which they used to descend safely to the ground. The failure was a sobering one for James and Mike, however, and they now have a special commitment to ensuring that the Sling’s ballistic parachute set up is 100% reliable.
Click on the video link below to see a short film of the test performed.
