[request] Assuming fresh powdery snow, how deep would it have to be for the paratrooper to survive, if possible?

[u/Fizzerolli]

My son sent me this. My immediate thought based on nothing is that it’s unsurvivable regardless of the depth.

[u/SoylentRox]

Note the skydiver doesn't have to be going terminal velocity. Potentially the drop could be from, say, 100 feet up, right at the stall speed of the 1940s Soviet transport aircraft used. At impact with the deep snow the skydiver will be traveling at ? m/s, or ? mph

Say it's 50-60 mph, for the Lisunov Li-2, a Soviet copy of the DC-3, which has a stall speed of 51 mph. Then at impact

v = sqrt[(v_0)^2 + 2gh]

Where:

  v₀ = initial speed (stall speed ≈ 27.7 m/s)
  g = 9.81 m/s² (gravitational acceleration)
  h = height (100 ft ≈ 30.5 m)

At impact, without drag, they will be traveling about 37 m/s or 83 mph.

I also tried a python script to model the speed vs time to take into account horizontal drag. I get

Impact results:

x: 61.19 m, y: -0.00 m

Horizontal speed: 18.97 m/s

Vertical speed: -21.59 m/s

Total speed: 28.74 m/s, which is ~64 mph

Then if the person, impacting at 64 mph, decelerates over 1m through the snow, they are subject to 42G of deceleration, which is on the edge of survivable.

About 5-10% of soldiers might survive this.

I am hoping the Soviets did experiments with dummies of the instrumented non living kind to test this before trying actual soldiers...

[u/Remarkable-Ask2288 → u/SoylentRox]

This is the Soviets we’re talking about. Of course they didn’t

[u/thisstartuplife → u/Remarkable-Ask2288]

I'm not even sure this story is real.

This one is.

Knew a guy in the 82nd who was testing new chutes and said they tested them once 4 out of 5 opened.

Which is why I never jumped out of a plane...though I've been pushed out of a few.

[u/Remarkable-Ask2288 → u/thisstartuplife]

Even if it isn’t real, it sounds like something the soviets would have done, just based on reputation.