Any ideas on a compact light weight (and hopefully affordable and dummy proof) parachute that could be used in an emergency to jump out of a building?

I was thinking of this incident last weekend where a woman jumped eight stories to her death because of a fire. I came up with a kind of jury-rigged descender rope thing that'd support up to 294 pounds and allow you to drop down a lower floor... but you'd need to be kind of athletic (able to climb ropes) to use it effectively. Mostly I'm proud of myself that it's reasonably portable. A grab it pack would probably be enough to carry it.

I know there are things like the "Executive-Chute" and various winch/pulley/cable devices for emergency escape, but none of them meet a common sense standard for likelihood of use vs. hassle of carrying them vs. ridiculous cost.

From experience you can jury rig a parachute for aerial resupply (dropping cargo) from about 90 feet up and it'll open about... I dunno, 75 percent of the time? The rest of the time your cargo is padded and might land more or less intact anyway... but if it was a living human being he'd probably die.

But cargo is tougher than people. I'm not so sure your legs would stand such an adventure even if the chute did open.

They make some cheapo parachutes for speed training for runners... I don't know if that'd be enough to help much.

Actually my sad conclusion right now is there's probably nothing I could realistically carry to address this problem. But I don't want to conclude that.

Talking to yourself on your thread?

I guess so. It probably could have been one post, but I was also thinking aloud (in writing).

You need memory fabric. *ducks and hides*

Not so sure a chute is what you need. Maybe something more along the lines of a deployable airbag. Like in a car. It would absorb teh impact of hitting the ground. Something like that could be rigged up using airbags from a car and compressed air canisters. The trick would be getting it to deploy when you jumped. Although the switches for air bags are rather simple impact detectors. You would need something that was opperable by the user. I.E. you.

So here is what you need:
airbags on each of the major extremities covering the torso back and head
compressed air canister for each airbag
a switch that can be tripped by you to activate all the airbags at once.

There could also be a question of timing. Airbags only stay inflated for about 2 seconds. So you switch may have to be something complex like a proximity detector. So you would arm the mechanism, then jump out of the building. when you are 10 feet from the ground the bags would deploy. Theoretically, it could work

I wouldn't trust my life on something that complex though. The airbag idea would work in theory, but it's rather complicated, and the more complex something is the more opportunities there are for it to get messed up. K.I.S.S., amiright?

That being said I can't think of any simple solutions atm, so I'll stop needlessly cutting down the only ideas presented while offering nothing myself.

you are very correct Sparrow. The more compley something is, the more likely it is to fail. That is my favorite saying. I use several time a week at work. I belive simplicity is the goal.

The simpelist way to get down from a high area is to jump. But if you want to survive then you need to complicate it just a bit. Mega's rope idea is the second simplest. from there we can move through more complex ideas. all of them with more or less equal chances of success or failure.

I don't think this idea can be solved with super simple tech. This will require some serious engineering

For some reason this reminds me of batman.

What if you used something similar to a net launcher to fire the parachute up and open it prior to jumping. It would require some timing on the part of the jumper, but might improve their chances.

i yell for grappling hook

thats pretty good Crossfire. Sorta how spiderman does it when he has nothing to attach his web to.

so with a simple teeshirt launcher gun and the chute harness that could be made to work. The only thing is that you would need some distance between the rider and the chute so that there will be room for the launch. That can be accomplished with some math and cables to get the right reach on it.

Ok Mega Rad. I think we have a viable option. The next move is yours

At 12 feet a story, that is 96 feet. you can fit 165 feet of rope, two harnesses, and all the hardware you need in a oversized backpack or a duffel bag. If you know what you are doing, you can tie off pretty quickly, maybe within a couple of minutes. If you are wearing the harness already, that cuts down on time more. What would really take a long time is to get the other person into a harness.

I would anchor off, belay the other person down, and then hook into the line and descend. You may be a crispy critter by then though.

If it is just you that wants to get off a rooftop, and there is no rescue, you can get off pretty quickly. Pretty much everything you need can be fit into a backpack.

WHY IS EVERYONE SO SMART WITH GADGETS???

what about a cable braking system? attaching the top of the cable to something solid can be done in a very short period of time, slide into a harness containing the braking system and already to the cable (once again can be made to be a fast process: step in, click a buckle or two). then simply jump out the window, the braking system kicks in and slows the descent to a survivable rate.

I suggest cable since rope can be burned up by the fire in question, and small gauges of cable can still hold more than enough weight and still be relatively lightweight.

The harness doesn't have to be pre-attached to the braking system either, it could have a carabiner style clip to attach to the harness, but for simplicity I suggest the brake be pre-attached to the cable.

look up "rap jumping"

I think the idea is to have a self contained item. nothing to set up or leave behind. It needs to be something that can be used at a split second notice.

You're on a roof and someone is pointing a gun at you. If you can jump off you can escape, YAY!
However if you have to say "hang on let me tie off my cables first" You probably wont make it.

hrm, I have never done base jumping. I dunno. Maybe we should do some "research" on this topic

havent done it. Saw it on film several times. Find a high cliff our tower or bridge. Get a chute and jump off the top. Lots of times they will hold the chute in hand rather than have it packed. when they jump they dive as far from the edge as possible then toss the chute out. If they are lucky they wont be pushed back into the side of whatever they jumped from then can float on down to the bottom.

It's very dangerous, and illegal in many places. Brige Day in West Virginia is one of the more popular base jumping festivals. The WV tourism commission open the new river gorge bridge one day a year to allow people to base jump from it. There is lots of video on the web showing it.