Despite success in developing and fielding a family of different-weight precision self-guiding parafoil-based aerial payload delivery systems, there is a need for a system that would trade relatively large stand-off deployment distances for a substantially lower cost of production and operation. One such system, based on a standard round canopy with a slightly modified rigging, was developed and demonstrated in the early 2000's. This paper capitalizes on controllable round canopy developments and considers using inexpensive cruciform-type canopies with a single-actuator control paradigm. While aerodynamics of cruciform-type canopies were extensively studied in the past, lesser efforts were devoted to converting them into a steerable platform. This paper presents the conceptual design and prototyping of a cruciform parachute-based aerial payload delivery system and discusses the results of the initial subscale developmental tests devoted to studying control authorities and dynamics of such a system.
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