200 self inflating parachutes shoot out ahead of the plane slowing it down, catching most of the energy and creating a mesh around the stricken airplane bringing it safely to ground.

Yes ahead of the plane, slowing it down as the plane passes through this "mesh" of parachutes.
-- pashute, Jul 21 2014

Parachutes for small planes already exist http://www.wired.co...quits-over-bahamas/
Per an annotation, we simply need something appropriately larger, as the final parachute for a large commercial airliner. [Vernon, Jul 21 2014]

As kids we used to walk around missing a step, https://www.youtube...watch?v=qaQ0R3uNhFI
and say: Miss Penelope with wide open eyes, that light up when they see money [pashute, Jul 27 2014]

Eyes lighting up https://www.youtube...watch?v=BrEOuAQTg2A
[pashute, Jul 27 2014]

_Ahead_ of the plane?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 21 2014


Aeroplanes are more likely to crash when they are going backwards, I think you'll find.
-- pocmloc, Jul 21 2014


Look up "drogue chute", and consider a simple sequence of larger chutes being deployed, as the aircraft's speed drops. The final chute could be deployed from the top of the aircraft (see link), and be very large.
-- Vernon, Jul 21 2014


// very large //

Ballistic recovery parachute for a civil airliner ?

So, you're 7000m AMSL travelling at 600 knots, and it All Goes Horribly Wrong. The object is to bring the airframe to the ground with a maximum vertical speed of about 5 m/s, and a similar horizontal speed, for an all-up mass of around 200,000 kg.

There are tables that tell you how big parachutes need to be for a given jump weight ...
-- 8th of 7, Jul 22 2014


That's why there are 200 small chutes, [bigs]
-- pocmloc, Jul 22 2014


each chute goes out separately adding up the effect. I saw that link before, and was solving for a large aircraft.
-- pashute, Jul 22 2014


Never understood why all passengers can't pile into a single capsule with its own chute, and jettison the rest of the plane.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 22 2014


I always wondered that intentionally braking down pieces off the plane (much like F1 cars are designed to "loose" their mass while crashing) when In Big Trouble would help. I mean you can throw away large mass items like engines, wings, APU, cargo and so on.

The passenger area would be made a "cage" fitted with a nicely sized parachute.

Surely not a safe ride home (down down down there), but survival rate would be higher.

It would be a hell of a challenge for the engineers to create such a design.
-- create, Jul 22 2014


or have an airplane within an airplane.

but that's not this idea...
-- pashute, Jul 27 2014



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