Husband and Wife with Metal and Fabric Parachutes Let's suppose: an open parachute made of fabric with a lady hanging below, starting from stand still, falls from 5000 meters. Another parachute made of thick metal, with the same size and shape as the fabric one and with the lady's husband hanging below, is also falling from 5000 meters. Which one would reach the ground first?
According to Newton's physics, if there is no air to consider, the two would reach the ground at the same time, because they would have the same rate of acceleration.
Now, with air. According to what I've learned so far, air resistance is affected by the shape and velocity of the falling object, given the same air density. The mass of the objects is not a factor directly, unless it contributes to the velocity of the objects. If the two parachutes have the same acceleration from the gravitational pull, then their velocity would remain the same because the air resistance is also the same.
This seems to conclude that the two parachutes would reach the ground at the same time. The lady would survive. That we know. Would the husband also survive, given the dome of the metal parachute is tall enough for him not to be crushed upon the "gentle" landing? What am I missing?
 A: 
If the two parachutes have the same acceleration from the gravitational pull, then their velocity would remain the same because the air resistance is also the same.

You are mixing force and acceleration in this statement. They have the same gravitational acceleration (different gravitational forces) and they have the same air resistance force (different air resistance accelerations). You can add accelerations to accelerations or you can add forces to forces, but you cannot add forces to accelerations.
Either way when you add forces (and divide by mass) or when you add accelerations you will find that the husband will hit the ground going much faster than the wife. For example, adding accelerations, the husband’s gravitational acceleration down is the same as the wife, but the air resistance acceleration up is much smaller (same force divided by larger mass), so the net downward acceleration is larger and he is faster on impact.
A: If the man and the wife are the same mass then they feel the same gravitational force. The metal parachute has much more mass than the fabric parachute so it feels a much larger force. Thus the man + metal parachute system feels a much larger force than the woman + cloth parachute system.
In the absence of air both systems experience acceleration g because the gravitational force is proportional to mass (which implies gravitational acceleration is independent from mass).
In the presence of air, if the cloth and metal parachutes have the same shape then they will feel the same force due to air resistance. In the case of the cloth parachute this force may be an appreciable fraction of the net gravitational force felt by the woman and cloth parachute so the overall acceleration may be very small (or even zero if terminal velocity is reached).
But for the man + metal parachute system this air resistance force will be a tiny fraction of the gravitational force so the net force doesn’t decrease by much compared to the no air case and the acceleration also doesn’t decrease much.
In fewer words: both systems experience the same lift but the metal parachute system has a much greater weight.
