The results of an investigation in which the behavior of parachutes in close proximity to one another was studied by using small parachutes attached to thin wires in the Langley 20-foot free-spinning tunnel are presented. These results indicate that the parachutes when side by side generally had little effect on one another and may sometimes have had slight repelling effects. When one parachute got into the wake above another parachute, the upper parachute sometimes collapsed on top of the lower parachute. The results indicate that the collapsing phenomenon is somewhat more prone to occur for high-porosity, stable parachutes than it is for lower-porosity, unstable parachutes such as those customarily used as man-carrying parachutes, although it may occur for the latter type. The wake region in which the upper parachute may be affected adversely extends to a distance of about five parachute diameters above the lower parachute.
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