drn@pinet.aip.org (donald_newcomb) (03/01/91)
From: drn@pinet.aip.org (donald_newcomb) I received several direct responses to my question on Fixed-wing Extraction. I have boiled them down and am sending them along for everyone's edification. Several people wrote about the standard send-up-a-ballon-and-snag-the-cable method. I think I made a mistake in my original query in not pointing out that I was well aware of how this extraction works. This pickup method has been well publicized for quite some time. It has been in several movies, (e.g. Thunderball, Green Berrets). Varriations include a C-130 with nose "wiskers" and the older trailing loop. I saw parts of the rescue system for sale in surplus stores as far back as 1970. My interest was in the much less well understood process of droping a line from a moving airplane. I think I read about the lower-a-rope method in a story about Alaska mail pilots. There was an asside to the effect, "and the military uses the same method to pick up downed pilots." It may be that the military sees no advantage in the second method. You can't, after all, use it to snag the parachute line of a film canister from "Big Bird" and circling tightly over one spot in a C-130 exposes the plane and crew to unnecessary risk from ground fire. >From: mvgrie@mtcamm.monsanto.com (Mark Grieshaber) >Yes, I know that back in the 50's or 60's, there was a missionary who >flew a Piper Cub in South America (can't remember his name, >but he either wrote a >book, or someone wrote a book about him, which I believe I have, somewhere). > >He pioneered (as claimed in the book, and supported with photos) the technique >of communication with natives on the ground in forest terrain (no landing >possible) by lowering a bucket on a rope by the exact method you reference. > >He would pass down articles (cloth, knives, jewelry, etc) in the bucket, and >haul back up articles that the natives had put in the bucket. Apparently the >technique is quite controllable. I would suspect that over such a long length >of rope, the continuous twisting is of negligible impact. >From: styer@ms.uky.edu (Eugene Styer) >pilots in South America (and perhaps elsewhere) to drop/retreive items from >the ground in places that the plane could not land. >From: malloy@nprdc.navy.mil (Sean Malloy) >There's the vertical extraction method that uses a modified C130; the >plane has a vee-shaped extension on the nose, with cables strung to >the wingtips. The plane flies over the extraction site and drops a >package containining a deflated helium balloon connected to a cable >with a harness on the other end. The extractee straps himself into the >harness, then inflates the balloon. Once the cable is extended, the >C130 flies over the extraction site, catching the cable roughly >halfway up. The extractee is lifted straight up about 60 feet, then >pulled along behind the plane. Drag on the balloon reels the >extractee in toward the plane, where they wind up behind the open >cargo hatch, and are pulled in. The cable is disconnected and >released. > >The cables from the tips of the horns to the wingtips are to prevent >the propellers from eating the cable and jamming if the pilot doesn't >catch the cable from the balloon correctly. >From: knude@daimi.aau.dk (Per Knudsgaard) > Danish television showed a Hercules picking up a member of the "Jaeger >Kors" - an equivalent to SAS/Green Baret - not so long ago. The technique is >something like this: > > The person on the ground fits himself into a harness, and launches a line >with a baloon. The C130 approaches at the correct altitude with a >"collector" out the back. It grabs the cable and you can lift the person >into the plane. Something similar is done in a 007 film - I think it was >one with Sean Connery - where they collect a rubber dinghy with Bond and >the "lady" of the film in it. If you know which 007 it was, please let me >know. [Thunderball drn] >From: "Jon C. R. Bennett" <jb7m+@andrew.cmu.edu> >i have never heard of this method, but i have heard of, and seen, one that >is "similar" to it, the downed pilot puts on a harness and releases a {rest of previous posting deleted} >From: AUGUST@JPLLSI.JPL.NASA.GOV (Richard B. August) >The fixed wing extraction technique was developed during the Vietnam War >by the AirForce (the project manager is an aquaintance of mine). >The method described by Donald R. Newcomb in his posting is somewhat flawed. {rest of previous posting deleted} Again, I must apologize for not making clear that I was not seeking information about the Fulton Recovery System but, rather, this less well known method. Donald Newcomb | C'est magnifique, mais ce n`est pas la guerre. drn@pinet.aip.org | --Marshal Bosquet