Miniature, unmanned aircraft with automatically deployed parachute

A miniature, unmanned, remotely controlled aircraft, comprising:

• an airframe,
• a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine,
• a receiver disposed to receive remote guidance signals,
• a flight control system disposed to control direction of flight responsive to the remote guidance signals,
• a parachute carried aboard said airframe, and
• a deployment system operatively connected to said parachute and disposed to deploy said parachute said deployment system comprising:
• a parachute deployment mechanism,
• at least one sensor disposed to sense a value of at least one operational parameter of flight operatively connected to said deployment mechanism, and
• a fail-safe system comprising means for generating a fail-safe signal indicative of normal operation of at least said flight control system and means for sensing presence of said fail-safe signal operatively connected to said deployment mechanism,
• said deployment mechanism being caused to operate responsive to at least one of the conditions:
• sensing when the sensed value falls outside a predetermined range of acceptable values, and sensing an absence of said fail-safe signal for a predetermined period of time.