Butler Parachute Systems has one of the finest manufacturing and testing facilities in the parachute industry and welcomes visitors. However, due to security requirements and the proprietary nature of some of our work, we ask that you contact us in advance to arrange a tour at a mutually acceptable time.
We moved to our present plant in Roanoke, Virginia in 1995. The newly renovated facility occupies a 21,000 sq. ft. building just west of downtown Roanoke. We have a full compliment of manufacturing equipment with 65 automatic and manual sewing machines, two cloth spreading tables, a line cutting table, and a CNC cutting and plotting machine. Our quality inspections start with the materials when they are shipped to the factory and end with a final inspection. In between this, there are quality inspections at each stage of the manufacturing process. To achieve these inspections, we have a cloth-rolling light table, a permeability measuring gauge, and four inspection light tables.
Our test equipment includes drop test equipment with 10 variable weight drop test dummies, a Mecmesin Multitest pull test machine capable of 11,240 pounds, and a drop test tower capable of measuring 50,000 pound loads.
Butler Parachute Systems also has a full metal working machine shop with a mill, lathe, CNC, plasma cutting, welding, and finishing coating equipment.
