Agents of SHIELD myths

Yeah, I'd dismissed Agents of SHIELD because of the fantastical nature of the world - as I noted it's the exact same universe as the Marvels films take place in. However one interrogation and some research later I realised that none of the main cast are meant to be anything other than normal humans. So I wondered if some of the stunts, and indeed maybe one or two of the bits of equipment they've used, might not be 'realistic'.

After the thumb screws came out, thankfully just getting them out of the box was enough, I was able to get some other scenes that might be testable;

I'm told that in the last episode (3/4th Feb?) one of the characters is riding on top of a moving train and needs to make a quick escape. To do this she opens a small parachute/drogue that allows her to be pulled off the train and land safely. I seem to recall a similar scene in one of the Mission Impossible films.

An earlier episode saw them blow a large hole in the side of their plane while it was in flight. One of the characters saves a team mate by releasing an inflatable raft that plugs the hole.
Now MB have tested explosive decompression on aircraft before. But it just occurred to me that one thing they didn't try to test was if the flow of air past a hole in the side of an aircraft might create enough suction to pull someone out of the aircraft.

The beer-keg myth seems to be interesting because according to my source the explosion clearly didn't kill the guards, just knocked them off their feet (which might be a result of an instinctive reaction to jump back rather than the force of the blast itself) and stunned them. Both guards were, apparently, still moving as the heroes made their escape. So it does seem reasonably plausible on the surface.

They could use either or both Buster and the Skindaver to determine if this stunt is something safe for the cast to do. (Normally this would be Tori or Adam...but it would be fun to have Kari perform this stunt if it was judged safe. Not that she would thank me for that idea....)

Having done some mild arm twisting I'm also told that it wasn't apparent that she was wearing a chute until she deployed it - which as I recall was the same situation in the Mission Impossible film in which a similar stunt was performed. So that would give them plenty of fodder beyond just testing the base myth, as they could try to design such a chute.

Testing itself would be simplicity, as they could use a truck pulling a cargo container along the runway. Landing on concrete might give somewhat misleading results, and prove dangerous to do for real. But they might be able to create a softer surface to land on at the jump point. If they carried out earlier testing and found that the dummies were landing in the same general area then they *should* be able to pad the landing area for the other dummy.

It's been a while since I saw this episode so I hope I'm remembering it correctly. But does anyone remember seeing the episode about the one where one of the female agents (the geeky English science girl) is 'infected' with an alien virus so to 'save' the others she decides to toss herself out of the plane mid flight over the Atlantic ocean without a parachute. As she's free falling the girl is 'knocked' unconscious halfway through her drop.

About a 30 odd seconds later (I didn't count exactly how long it was sorry, but I do remember it was less than 60 seconds) another male agent grabs a parachute & jumps out of the plane to chase after/rescue her. As he's free falling he straps it (the parachute) on & then catches up mid air to the unconscious girl & then pulls the parachute shoot rescuing them both.

What I'm wondering is could someone jump out of a plane & as they're free falling strap on a parachute. & then catch up to an unconscious person & rescue them before they both go splat?

Drone chute dismount from a train....

Some mad so-and-so did a bridge jump by jumping off a moving van over a bridge...
He was a base jump "Expert", and I think chatting to a few base jumpers would be useful on this subject.
I watched that, and part of what he was saying stuck somewhere, in order for a "Normal" chute to open and deploy fully, you have to have a certain air speed?.... and height?...
Isnt there a minimum height a "normal" chute needs to open at?...

And I know we are talking drone chute here, smaller ones, but are they effective enough at slowing a human down, because if they are, why ARE parachutes so large anyway?...

I suggest that you would need a certain size of chute to slow you down sufficiently to "land"....
And that size is what we already know for a parachute....

I cite research for bang-out zero-zero seats from fighter jets that can work at any ground speed during take off and landing, including going through the speed of any train.
In order to land the pilot safely, they first eject "Upwards" to get enough height to deploy a chute that can land the pilot with minimum injury?....

So is there a minimum size a chute can be to land safely with?...
Unless its a high-speed train, is it possible to open that minimum size chute fully from say a commuter multi-stop train?...

Just what air speed/and/or/height is required to actually open a chute and land safely?...

When does a chute become s aerofoil in that hang-glider sort of way?..

Are we looking at something else, and I suggest the looking at the chutes used in Formula power boat racing to slow down the safety cell in accidents... they are for use over water, are they any use over land?...

This kinda echo's the ideas of an Umbrella slowing down rate of descent, or a bit of 8X4 plywood acting as a wing.
I can see plenty to test there.

Testing, yes, Runway and large cargo truck, Buster with his usual internal accelerometers, throw him off the roof and see what happens?... Open chute and allow him to get snatched at approximately the same speed and same chute size, the increase chute size until you get something safer?...

Expected results, "Ouch", Gravity is the problem, I dont think you have enough height to slow down enough, I expect landing of over 50g's from that roof height and speed.
I dont think the chute has enough time to slow you down before you drop and hit hard surface, with an almost pendulum effect from the cute, it will throw you down...


I reserve the right, as usual, to be wrong.

as for the smaller details of parachutes - on the kite crew, our primary lifters were retired chutes. we flew them in winds from about 15 MPH to 40MPH+. below 15 MPH, they were essentially worthless; and we switched to purpose made light wind parafoils for our lifters.

however, a drogue chute is a different critter - we had a pair of what was essentially 6 foot drogues. they certainly wouldn't fit on May's back without being noticeable. the primary thing they were used for was in high winds, they would apply enough drag to the line, we could clip them on and they would give us enough load on the lifter to allow the regular crew to bring it down. (in 40 MPH+ winds, these lifters could easily have a 400# dead load off the ground.)

No more than you would from the deployment of a normal chute...in fact assuming a reasonably well designed harness you'd probably be less likely to suffer injury. This is because a normal chute has a much larger surface area, so will decelerate the user faster and is doing so at a far higher speed that you'd get from (most) trains. (Figure that normal skydiving has speeds of around 120mph, where as the train in question was probably only moving at just over half that speed.

Landing is, of course, an entirely different matter.