Not long ago an enterprising entrepreneurial inventor asked; What if the Parasail was made with more rigidity, what if we used an expandable dirigible type shape? Could we then increase the speed, maneuverability, strength, and safety?

Interestingly enough, it is possible to redesign the parasail in such a way that would enhance its performance in every regard. Follow with me as I take you through a few innovative concepts that could be deployed in the future to make this a reality.

First, we make the parasail out of ultra-light space age material, with an inner flexible frame surrounded by flexible NASA foam, inside of a carbon nano-tube or graphene wrap. Perhaps you could have only one attachment from the operator, pod, or power system. This would remove the need for all the external stringers, improving parasite drag and increasing safety.

A single post from the parasail to the operator or operating system would provide another level of performance as it could be thin, but shaped like a long fin or sword shape. And since it the parasail would be morph-able, it would be very maneuverable and would not collapse if its wind was stolen or it hit turbulence.

Further, the sword-like post could be semi-retractable swinging 90-degrees to allow high speed with the pod, operator, or operating system behind it or below it for slower speeds. The parasail itself could morph from a delta-wing similar to a hang-glider into a fat wing shape like a parasail for maximum glide rates and lift.

These units could be built very cheaply and could be used for swarming sensors of any size from a UAV platform with long-range camera or personal carrier for rescue, military, or patrol. It might even be used in the range of the micro-mechanical. You know nature has such things, think of a Dandelion floating in the wind in a parasail fashion.

Think of it as a flying umbrella, but instead of the umbrella we are using doubles as a parasail concept or wing. These units could be made very large or extremely small and these little units could be used like Smart Dust with micro-sensors, acting like nodes or motes flowing in the wind.

Such airborne system have lots of advantages for weather, wind, studying volcanic eruptions, wildfires, Hurricanes, dust storms or movement along a path, road, canyon, tunnel, etc. And we could still use the parasail concept for recreation, as in personal flying craft, and sports recreation? How much weight will you want to move?

This system could also be made into a very nice towing chute; a ship - in a shipping channel crossing the ocean to save fuel, towing a sight-seeing tourist by boat over the white sands and beautiful shore line, or even floating a camera in high-winds for border patrol surveillance.

Another thought would be to use the sword-like post tether to keep the parasail unit aloft by adjusting pitch, roll, and yaw, preventing stall due to relative wind. That wouldn't be too hard to figure out, and with a simplified program autopilot and stability control algorithm. Such a concept is something we will be seeing in the future, it's inevitable that designs of these types will come available as new space age materials do. Think on this.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow