How do paratroopers avoid colliding with other paratroopers’ parachutes while descending?
In: Physics
Former paratrooper here. The answers below are **mostly** right, however the parachute that the US uses (the T-11) **is** allegedly steerable to a small degree.
Most of the time, Paratroopers exiting from opposite sides of the airplane makes enough separation that there’s no problems.
However if you exit and notice that either 1. you’re going to run into someone or 2. you’re going to glide over someone (which is super dangerous for both of you and I can explain why in a comment for anyone who’s interested), you can do what’s called “pulling a slip”. And you pull in one ( AND ONLY ONE!!!!) of the straps that goes up to the parachute as much as you can and hold on to it.
Ideally, that changes the shape of the parachute just enough so that you begin sliding in that direction. It’s not a lot, but usually it’s enough to avoid collision.
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