Making Parachutes
Most of us buy pre-made parachutes, but you can make your own custom parachutes (and maybe save a few dollars). The following resources provide information on making parachutes for rockets.
Parachute Design and Construction - Richard Nakka's Experimental Rocketry Web Site includes a discussion of basic parachute aerodynamics, parachute design, and parachute construction. Warning: the site contains real math! The instructions help you make a 12 gore (panel) parachute which is "structurally rugged and capable of withstanding high speed deployment."
Chute! - Rocket Team Vatsaas's page describes how to construct a large, parabolic cupped parachute. The page includes an Excel spreadsheet which calculates the proper size 'chute for a specific weight rocket.
[Posted: 2008-05-13 | Updated: 2008-05-17]