During the summer of 2024, Zipline was testing the P2 Zip, which is designed for urban areas where existing delivery services are unaffordable, slow, and environmentally taxing. The P2 Zip delivers its payload by hovering hundreds of feet in the air and winching down a "Droid", which silently deposits the package at the customer's doorstep.

I was the test engineer responsible for the Droid's emergency parachute system. I had to design, manage, and perform a plethora of tests on the parachute. Since the parachute was integrated deeply into the droid, I worked closely with members from the design team, requirements team, reliability team, and more.

I assessed the reliability of the parachute in every worst case scenario it might encounter, then developed fixtures to perform the tests and process the data. The three main tests I performed were ground fires, drop tests, and high speed launches, but there were numerous others as well. Through the testing and analysis, I discovered a tolerancing flaw of a fraction of a millimeter that eliminated the jamming failures.

While I learned key industry skills such NX Siemens, I had many unexpected realizations that will certainly prove useful in my career:

• Test fast and scrappy (if you can afford it) - it'll reveal unexpected oversights and results quickly
• Buy lots of extra parts for your design (also if you can afford it)
• Question everything
• Have a clear vision for the goals of every meeting you lead, and the pace you need to sustain to achieve them all
• Take lots of photos for documentation, you'll thank yourself later

It was a great experience getting to work alongside the design engineers, requirement engineers, reliability engineers, supply & assembly team, and even software engineers on this project.