A Recent Invention Of Mine Called A "Chute Cannon" Inspired by 9/11

Did you ever the see the movie 9/11. It was a documentary done by 2 French brothers on 9/11. It's probably one of the most gripping and bone chilling documentaries ever made. NBC aired it this past 9/11 I believe.

One of the sadest things I've ever seen is the people trapped on the upper floors of the Twin Towers. They had their heads stuck out the windows, and they were gasping for air. They even showed a few people jumping to their deaths. It was horrifying.

I started thinking about the people in that situation. They were trapped. They had the choice of suffocating, being burned alive, or jumping to their deaths. A few jumped to their deaths. If you watched the documentary 9/11, you could actually hear them as they hit right outside lobby of the Twin Towers.

They also showed footage of all the helicopters hovering around the buildings--there was about 7 of them.

So, I started thinking. I asked myself the question, "What if there was a way for those helicopters to get parachutes to those people who were trapped on those upper floors?"

I came up with something called a "Chute Cannon". Basically, my invention would use compressed air, a long tube that extended out past the "propeller wash" of the helicopter. It would shoot a specially packaged parachute out through the tube and into a window.

Have you ever been to an NBA or NHL game and watched a halftime show? You may recall the guys who come out and shoot balled-up t-shirts into the crowd using compressed air and tubes. Well, this is the same concept, only I'm talking about parachutes and helicopters.

In my opinion, this invention could have saved hundreds of lives on that tragic September morning.

I think this invention could still be useful today. It might cost about $50 thousand dollars to manufacture, but I think it would be beneficial for every city with at least one building over 20 stories to have a "Chute Cannon".

I think a "Chute Cannon" could be attached to the side door of a helicopter in a matter of minutes, and the helicopter could be on the scene of a major building fire in a matter of a few more minutes. If someone was trapped, and they were faced with a choice of base jumping for the 1st time, suffocating, or being burned alive, I think they would happily choose jumping out of a building with a parachute strapped to their back--I'm sad to say this, but they proved this on 9/11.

Given our current political environment it behooves governments to want something like this to protect its citizens. It might cost a grand total of about $30 million to outfit every major city in the U.S. with one of these, which is a drop in the bucket when you consider its life saving potential.

I started a project to call companies who I think would make good candidates to manufacture this product. I've submitted my idea to a patent attorney. We'll see what happens.