Originally Posted by
Jayhawk 023
I'm just a dumb airline guy that was curious about Learjet drag-chute kits. The other day I was thumbing through a publication that advertises aircraft and noticed that numerous Lears had these kits installed. I actually thought it was sort of interesting. I've never actually seen them in use anywhere, is it typically an emergency-only device? Or was it due to brake-design on the 20-series, etc? Just curious...
I think it was a 24D that we flew that had the drag chute. Never used it but one of the other pilots did. Not difficult to repack and as others have noted, the concerns were the effect in strong crosswinds.
The -20 series Lears had good brakes so that was not a factor. I think the chute was included in the -24 and -25 because at that time, the approach speeds were far above what many gen av pilots were used to. While the chute was effective, it was not necessary as many operators just chose to use longer runways.