# Humanitarian aid airdrops without parachutes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 7, 2001, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humanitarian-aid-airdrops-without-parachutes/85971 "2001-10-07T19:55:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humanitarian-aid-airdrops-without-parachutes/85971/21 "2001-10-08T14:14:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tranquilis \* > \*\*Each package contains 2200 calories, which is about what most Western men eat in a day, and is about twice what most Afgans get in a day. From the above link: > > > [@](#): > > > > Each package contains beans with tomato sauce, beans and tomato vinaigrette, a biscuit, a fruit pastry, fruit bar, shortbread, peanut butter, strawberry jam, instructions, and a utensils package including salt, pepper, napkin and a match. > > Not all _that_ bland, and I’m sure these little packages are going to be quite popular. \*\* Considering that most of the people in the targeted areas haven’t seen a decent meal in months, these little packages are going to seem like a feast. Let’s hope they get into the right hands - by which I mean the hands of hungry people, not of armed thugs who already grab whatever they need. For some reason the idea of including “salt, pepper and a napkin” cracks me up 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humanitarian-aid-airdrops-without-parachutes/85971/22 "2001-10-08T14:40:41Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Spiny Norman \* > Efficiency. A parachute isn’t free and it takes up space and lifting capacity that could be used for more supplies. Why bother if you can do without ? Designing the package to act as its own parachute, that’s a very neat little piece of engineering._\* Now the trick would be to make a design based on a sycamore seed, giving you a delivery system that also blends the ingredient as it falls. Load it with strawberries and yogurt, you’ve got a smoothie by the time it hits the ground. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humanitarian-aid-airdrops-without-parachutes/85971/23 "2001-10-08T14:46:02Z")
I’ve no source to cite, just what I saw on MSNBC this morning. It was actual footage of two of the containers sliding toward the rear of the aircraft and then falling out. I think the confusion about what we’re dropping comes from this image - one of a 600 pound container plumetting to earth. That’s not the case. When this cardboard container rolled out of the plane and was hit by winds at the speed of the aircraft, the large container disintegrated and the individual yellow packets of beans and rice all began their individual, fluttered descents down. The largest free-falling object would have been an opened, flappy piece of cardboard about the size a refridgerator might have come in. Yeah, it’d make a nasty paper cut but the chances are pretty slim. In fact, one of those poor bastards will probably be using it as a house tonite. Salt, pepper & napkin? Heh heh. Good 'n flodnak. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humanitarian-aid-airdrops-without-parachutes/85971/24 "2001-10-08T16:18:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spiny Norman \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by SexyWriter \* > > \*\*I have an additional question about this topic: Why? > > > > I wondered at the PURPOSE of avoiding parachute use. I assumed it was probably because of some issue with unwanted sightings of the drop sites. Perhaps mean, bad Taliban leaders rush off to shoot down parachutes or steal whatever hits the ground, thus leaving the Afghanis without food after all. > > > > However, if the loads are being slowed down by streamers, helicoptering their way to ground, etc. this purpose would be defeated. > > > > What IS the reason for doing this? > > > > -L \*\* > > Efficiency. A parachute isn’t free and it takes up space and lifting capacity that could be used for more supplies. Why bother if you can do without ? Designing the package to act as its own parachute, that’s a very neat little piece of engineering. > > S. Norman \*\* The reason I heard was also the “avoid injury” one. As Tranquilis said. I saw yet another retired General on TV yesterday afternoon (on CBS, I think; he headed up one of the recent Balkan campaigns, IIRC) said that, when the planes started dropping huge aid crates, the first ones would land, and then the refugees (or whatever you want to call them…they haven’t left the country yet, but they DO need aid…) would rush outside and the next batch of giant crates would land and crush the very people the US was trying to help. So he said that some bright young enlisted geek modeled the aerodynamic properties of the MREs (or, rather, the humanitarian-aid version of the MRE) alone, and the military then figured out how to drop the individual meals where they wanted them to land. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humanitarian-aid-airdrops-without-parachutes/85971/25 "2001-10-08T16:41:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by flodnak \* > \*\*Considering that most of the people in the targeted areas haven’t seen a decent meal in months, these little packages are going to seem like a feast. Let’s hope they get into the right hands - by which I mean the hands of hungry people, not of armed thugs who already grab whatever they need. > > For some reason the idea of including “salt, pepper and a napkin” cracks me up 😃 \*\* One of the side effects of the dispersal of the packets is to make it harder to hoard the food. In past drops, where the food came down in a handful of large pallets, it was fairly easy to put armed guards on the food. Now, they’d have to guard several thousand square meters to control the food, and the packages having been disbursed widely will make it hard to collect more than a handful to haul-away. OTOH, one person could easily carry four or five back to his or her family, quickly. I don’t know if this aspect was considered and incorporated deliberately, or if it’s a happy accident, but I thinks it’s pretty nifty. As for the utensils and napkins, I’d think toilet paper would be more useful… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humanitarian-aid-airdrops-without-parachutes/85971.md?page=1)