Parachutes

Speak enters the world of Gossip Girl in this modern immigrant story from New York Times bestselling author Kelly Yang about two girls navigating wealth, power, friendship, and trauma. They’re called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the United States while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she’d be one of them, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California. Suddenly she finds herself living in a stranger’s house, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute, Jay, asks her out. Dani De La Cruz, Claire’s new host sister, couldn’t be less thrilled that her mom rented out a room to Claire. An academic and debate team star, Dani is determined to earn her way into Yale, even if it means competing with privileged kids who are buying their way to the top. But Dani’s game plan veers unexpectedly off course when her debate coach starts working with her privately. As they steer their own distinct paths, Dani and Claire keep crashing into one another, setting a course that will change their lives forever.

Parachutes can be used for emergency landings. But they can also be used for flying fun! Who packs a parachute? And how does its light fabric keep you afloat? Discover the answers inside this book!

Summary: Tests of spin-recovery parachutes on six models of typical fighter and trainer airplanes were conducted in the Langley 20-foot free-spinning tunnel to obtain data for correlating model and full-scale results. Parachutes attached to the tail of the models, to the out wing tip (left wing tip for a right spin), to the inner wing tip, and to both wing tips were tested. The results indicated that parachutes of the same size and type were more effective as spin-recovery devices when they were attached to the outer wing tip in the spin than when they were attached to the tail. The diameter of the outer wing-tip parachute required for a 2-turn recovery by parachute action alone varied from 4 to 7 feet. Parachutes attached to the inner wing tip would not effect recovery. When parachutes attached to both wing tips were used for recovery, the parachute diameters required were of the same order as for tail parachutes. The diameter of the tail parachute required for a 2-turn recovery by parachute action alone varied from 6.5 to 12.5 feet for the airplane designs used.

Free-body tests were made in the Langley spin tunnel to determine drag coefficients for 1.07-meter-diameter (3.5-foot) flat circular parachutes when restrained by wire frames in a series of shapes representing those that parachutes assume during the inflation process. Both high-porosity (stable) and low-porosity (unstable) parachutes were investigated. The results obtained should be applicable to inflation analyses for flat circular parachutes.