See Amazing Footage Of Aircraft Airdropping 8 Humvees In Air Force Exercise

Have you ever wondered how a 5,900 pounds High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) commonly known as the Humveee is airdropped from an aircraft .

Before being loaded onto the cargo rails of the aircraft with a crane, the bottom of the Humvees (a nickname which comes from the abbreviation – HMMWV) are first loaded with pieces of lightweight woods and honeycombed pads to absorb the shock of a normal landing.

3 cargo parachutes with combined weights of 275 lbs are later strapped to the Humvee to safely bring it down towards the ground.

To airdrop the $220,000 (about N79m in naira ) Humvee, the loadmaster opens the rear cargo door of the aircraft (a C-17 Globemasters or C-130 Hercules), releasing a smaller extraction parachute attached to the vehicle’s pallets.

The drag of the extraction parachute pulls the Humvee along the cargo rails and out of the aircraft , with the 3 cargo parachutes deployed as soon as the Humvee leaves the aircraft to slow and allow it’s easy descent from about 750 feet above ground level to Earth.