All canopies listed in this table were designed by the National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF) in Palestine, Texas. BPS has built the 154’, 130’, and 120’ canopies and has the ability to build all of the smaller sizes as well. These are very basic, flat circular canopy designs that are essentially scaled up versions of the US Military 28’ personnel chute; i.e., they are all built with a 4-needle main seam, and continuous lines through the main seams. All have nylon lines, cloth and reinforcing. Most of each canopy model is constructed from MIL-C-7020, Type 1 (1.1 oz/yd) cloth; however, about the top 25% of the canopy is constructed from MIL-7350, Type 1 (2.25 oz/yd) cloth for greater strength in the apex area.

NOTE: BPS has developed and built newer canopies up to 130’ in diameter that are significantly more efficient than the NSBF canopies. In many cases, the coefficient of drag (C_d) of the BPS canopies is more than twice the nominal C_d for the NSBF designs. The more efficient canopy design, modern materials and better construction can significantly reduce the weight of the system (by nearly 50%). Please see our section on UAV and target recovery systems for more details on those more modern canopies

Contact BPS for pricing and further details of the NSBF canopies.