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Comment by bonyt | Hacker News Reader

I was once on 25th street in Midtown, when I saw someone drop a tiny object with a little parachute from a window at least 8 or 9 stories up. Once it had finished slowly gliding down to the street, someone picked it up and used it to enter the building. It was the key - I guess the buzzer didn't work! It was a delightful sight.

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Chute to drop a key?? That's too much, something that light should be dropped by streamer. Less vulnerable to wind and more reliable.

Long, long ago I did model rocketry. Using too much chute was not a good thing because it could go so far off course. The high power rocket guys do it with two chutes--a drogue that deploys high and then the landing chute that deploys low. But that requires electronics and certifications and the like. In the lightweight stuff there's nothing fancy, just a delay built into the engine after which it burns through the top, momentarily exhausting into the interior.

I've seen people use an electric whisk to unreel a string to which the key was attached. Seems less risky than the parachute thing.

It must have been dramatic, but from a practical point of view wrapping it inside a few layers of paper towel (so that it doesn't kill anyone) would be faster, and easier to target.

Is it even possible for a a parachute-retarded key to directly hurt someone? I’d be more worried about it surprising someone driving a car or riding a bike and causing an accident

I think the GP meant dropping the key wrapped in paper without the parachute. That's what makes it faster and easier to target. Which also answers your question about surprising someone driving a car, since the key won't drift with the wind anymore.

I wouldn't say it's impossible, but when you're driving/biking in dense, busy cities, you encounter all sorts of unexpected dangerous fast-moving obstacles all the time. I can't imagine this would be a bigger problem than any of the other random shit flying around Manhattan at any given moment.

I biked as my only method of transportation in Boston and New York for years, and never did I have to dodge a projectile coming from above, parachute or otherwise.

I didn't say cyclists constantly dodge projectiles-- I said fast=moving obstacles, like cars and car doors. Having dodged quite a few car doors in Boston myself, I have a hard time picturing someone who could do that being dangerously thrown off by a little key floating down on a little parachute.

never rain nor sleet or snow (or hail)?

Boston must have changed since I last visited.

A friend of mine used to throw us his keys inside a pack of socks

>> when I saw someone drop a tiny object with a little parachute from a window at least 8 or 9 stories up.

I was 90% sure the next sentence was going to mention drugs.

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