Guest: Robert Talmage. Topics: Emergency escape module for aviation and rockets and ballistic recovery systems. Mr. Talmage discussed his safe, economical, and versatile emergency escape module for general aviation as well as rockets and space vehicles, using parachutes, gliding, and other mechanisms. You can contact Robert and he will send you his AIAA paper entitled "A Safe, Economical and Versatile Space Flight Test Vehicle." You can also find out more about his ideas and project at his website, http://www.taascompany.com , http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=7711 , and http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=7616 . During this discussion, we talked about the Ballistic Parachute System (BRS) already in use for small general aviation aircraft, how it works, its limitations, and its applications. We also talked about the military escape systems that have been used in the past and how Robert's idea differs from these earlier ideas. Robert explained how an emergency escape module could be used for rockets and space vehicles and even suborbital space tourism vehicles. We discussed the weight and cost penalties for such a system, but in the context of possibly better end use ticket sales if passengers thought the vehicle was safer with such an emergency system built into it. As one listener pointed out, it would be necessary to design a plan from scratch with this type of module built into it rather than attempting to modify an existing plane. However, as you will read in his paper and hear on the show, he does have a plan to obtain a Lear or something similar, modify it for a demonstrator flight and make it an ongoing test vehicle. There were many other listener questions, even some asking about skydiving records, supersonic ejection in military aircraft, and the skydiving altitude record and balloon jump by Joe Kittinger. Robert Talmage invites your questions and comments about the emergency escape module to rtalmage@taascompany.com. Don't forget to request his AIAA paper which he delivered in 2008.
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The Space Show
