The device is inspired by an inflatable nosecone that was initially designed for a Russian probe to Mars but was never used, and which will be tested in a souped-up form in a missile launch next month.

"The idea is to have a rescue pack that is affordable and easy to use," said Artem Ivankov, head of external relations at the Lavochkin Association, a subsidiary of Russia's Federal Space Agency, which is searching for investors at Paris Air Show here to complete and market the product.

In an emergency, the user would strap a rucksack-sized pack to his back, sit on the window ledge with the pack facing outwards, pull a ring to inflate the device and then tumble backwards.

The gadget instantly unfolds into a shallow cone, rather like a huge umbrella without a handle some seven metres (22.75 feet) across, braced by inflatable spokes and an inflatable outer ring.

The user then glides to Earth, strapped to a shell at the centre of the cone. The final descent is dampened by small airbags.

"So far, we have tested it at heights from 15 metres to 110 metres to 357 feet) using a half-sized human dummy weighing 40 kilos (88 pounds) and a package of sensors," Ivankov told AFP on Tuesday.

The deceleration in the last 0.5 seconds of descent is less than 12 Gtimes the force of gravity), he said.

In the US military, 12 G is considered just below the threshold (12.1 G) of what constitutes a "reasonable risk" of injury for a paratrooper.

That figure, however, is applicable to a young, healthy adult of around 80 kilos (176 pounds) and not a small adult or large child half of that size; on the other hand, cervical and internal injuries are likelier to occur if the body is in a vertical position at impact rather than a horizontal one.

The Moscow-based company is looking for "between 1.5 and two million dollars" to complete the test programme and, if the results are satisfactory, market the rescue pack, which would sell for 1,500-2,000 dollars apiece.

The idea comes from an inflatable nosecone developed for Russia's Mars 96 space probe.

The device was designed to brake the probe's descent through the planet's carbon dioxide atmosphere and help it glide to the ground.

But the probe was lost due to a booster failure at launch and the gadget never got to be used.

A revamped version of the cone, built with the participation of the European Space Agency (ESA) is due to be tested soon. It comprises special fabric that can resist the high heats of re-entry to Earth, with the goal of returning samples of material taken by robots sent to other planets, asteroids or comets.

The re-entry cone is due to be fired by a ballistic missile from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea next months, said Ivankov.

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