[nickpsecurity]

I've dove in water enough to know this is true. Couldn't recall mechanics of breaking surface properly, though outside basic dives. Modification: something between the mattress and water to break the surface. Maybe repeating structures that do that in a single layer. What now?

[tim333]

Indeed. The practical design is probably something more like a large air bag as used in ski jumping http://www.magicfr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/babsnowboa...

[nickpsecurity]

Yeah, I'm thinking along those lines. I had the thing in mind I see in movies rescuing jumpers and a BouncyCastle. It works for small distances. How to get it to work for larger distances and with potentially other materials?

[tim333]

I imagine the big airbag/bouncy castle thing would work for free fallers. You'd need it to be quite thick like 50ft and quite large so you don't miss it jumping out of the plane. From mountaineering I think polyester tends to have the best strength to price ratio. There's a supplier here that can make 800 tons / month at about $2000/ton. Say 1 kg/m2 and .5 km x .5 km = 250 tons = $500k. Plus airpumps etc. Kickstarter?

[nickpsecurity]

Polyester seems interesting for it. A Kickstarter would be funny on this. I'm still at early exploration phase. Holding off.