Other Applications

PARASIM® has been used for sport skydiving training, and to provide a skydiving experience to visitors to museums, exhibitions, fairs, and other public venues around the world.

Presidential PARASIM®

Former President George H.W. Bush trained with PARASIM® in his 1997 AFF training course, and again in 2004, in preparation for his 80th birthday jump at his Presidential Museum in College Station, Texas. In World War Two, a young Lt. Bush made an emergency jump from his burning torpedo bomber. Things didn't go right. Eventually rescued by a submarine, Bush was injured and his crew of two died. For over fifty years, Bush kept secret a wish to be able to jump again, and get it right.

At a Parachute Industry symposium in Houston, Bush finally found the right audience while being presented with a parachute similar to the one he had used before. The US Parachute Association and the US Army Golden Knights offered to make this happen. In pursuit of this goal, this team turned to STI for the use of PARASIM®. On Monday, March 24, 1997, Bush hung in the simulator's parachute harness for 45 minutes of intensive but enjoyable training with 4600+ jump-expert instructor Larry Pennington, who got a laugh with his comment; "Takeoffs are optional, landings are mandatory, Mr. President."

When Larry was satisfied that the simulator had taught Bush a high level of parachuting skills, he capped the experience with a nostalgic change from ground scenes to an aircraft carrier. On Tuesday, Bush's skills were warmed up with refresher training before his highly successful actual parachute jump which culminated with a perfect tiptoe landing. In 2004, in celebration of his 80th birthday, Bush planned to skydive onto the grounds of his presidential library, in College Station, TX. Again, the Golden Knights turned to STI for PARASIM® and some custom modeling. STI built a PARASIM® scene based on aerial imagery and terrain data of the library grounds, and on June 13, 2004, the former President again trained with PARASIM® before his two tandem birthday jumps.

Sport PARASIM®

PARASIM® is also available in a special version for sport and recreational jump schools. Because sport parachuting uses advanced, high-performance equipment and flight techniques, our PARASIM® software has been modified and enhanced to incorporate the dynamics of modern sports parachutes, in order to further modernize training systems and techniques and reduce landing injuries. STI has worked with SSK Industries and with major canopy manufacturers to profile the performance of modern canopies and incorporate their airspeed, turn performance, dynamic control and descent rates into PARASIM®’s dynamic chute models.

Of particular interest to the sport parachuting community is the new Horizontal Start Option for PARASIM®

PARASIM®’s new Horizontal Start Frame (HSF) adds a unique degree of realism to the parachute simulation experience.

	Simulation starts in horizontal freefall position
	Sensors detect ripcord pull

	Enables high speed malfunctions recognition and response training
		Total
		Burble/Hesitation
		Pilot Chute in Tow
	Upon Main or Reserve Parachute activation, Jumper transitions to vertical position in a smooth, controlled release
	Easily disassembles for transport, storage and deployment.
	Stores in three two-person-carry cases
	One-hour setup time

Parachute Design and Prototyping

STI is always happy to work with canopy designers and manufacturers to create dynamics models of their new chutes based on flight test data. PARASIM® can provide test pilots with an initial feel of a new canopy before first flight, and allow iterations on designs to test new concepts on the ground before flying them.