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Ag usta 109K2 : Alpine Medivac Rescue Stra ight Up' s exploration of v ertical flight begin s with a high-impact alpine rescue amid an avalanche. The dra matic o penin g sequence docume nts the da ngerous work of the Rega mou ntain resc ue team and the i nvaluable role of t he Agusta A109K2 helicopter in saving lives and minim izing inju ries. As the camera p ans over beaut iful vistas of the snow -covered Sw iss Alps, it cuts to a co rnice, as a c hunk of snow breaks free, triggering an avalanche. The tranquil scene is shattered as the ava lanche thunders down the mountain slopes. With terrifyin g speed, i t heads straight for a mother and child trapped in their c ar, wheels spinnin g on th e icy road. The mother calls for h elp on her cell ph one, and a s econd call f rom a sno wplow prompts rad io di spatch. The Rega moun tain rescu e team alr eady is a irborne en route to the scene, t he red cr oss painted on the helicopter9;s white underbelly signaling that medical help is on the way. The mother e scapes, bu t her son is missing. Within minutes of the helicopt er landing, the res cue team dig out the car, extract the trapped boy, apply first aid, and air lift him and his mother to safety. A sig nifi cant mountain hazard, avalanches are responsible for many deaths each year. Ti me is of the essence in a valanche rescue work . A person has a 90 p ercent chance of survival if found within the first 15 minutes , but one's chances of survival di minish with each pas sing m inute. Not onl y do helicopters p rovide quick access fo r rescue teams, they al so provid e a lifeline to medi cal c are. F lying the injure d to the nea rest hosp ital as rapidly as possible is not the o nly type of rescue operation ; often helic opte rs bring the hospital to the injur ed, who r eceive treatment at the scene. The powerful avalanche was shot in British Columbia's Selkirk Mountains under the supervision of the Canad ian Avalanche As sociation. The CAA co ntrols avalanche risk for the safe ty of heli-skiers. To capture the avala nche head-on, avalan che expert and filmmaker Steve Krochel and David Douglas developed a quar ter-inch -thick steel c ontainer for the I MAX camera, which was equipped with a trig gering devic e and a beeper so that the ca mera could be found once the avalanche had swept it down the mountain. The rescue was compl eted in Switzerl and's Be rnin a Pass near the Ital ian border. Filming the Rega rescue helicopter ai r-to- air sequenc e turned into an interna tional excursion as Douglas ch ased the sun light over Italy in one direc tion and in Austr ia in another before setting down i n Switzerland . In another drama tic shot, Dougl as ce ntered the red cross in the crossh airs of the camera lens as th e craft d escen ded. To facilitate this shot, Dougla s dug a hole in t he snow large enough to accommodate hims elf and the IMAX camera. In side the hole, 3 feet below t he hel icopter, he filmed its takeoff. According to Douglas, ";The helicopter i s th e instrument of rapid response to natur al physical and s ocial disast ers aro und t he world , alleviating huma n suffering on a major scale. For the individual caught beyond the limits of training or e quipment, often the last chance f or survival is the hope that a helicopt er will get to them in time. " The Pitcairn PCA 2 , "Miss Champ ion&quo t; Fo r centuries hu mans d reamed of flight. The Chinese, i n the 12th centur y, devel oped a toy helico pter made from a pair of slats mounted on a s tick, but ser ious eff orts had to w ait until the early 20th century. Then, after the Wright brothers' histo ric flight at Kitty Ha wk, we drea med of fli ght unfettered by the limitations of runways and airports. Yet by the early 1930s we were still at the dawn of the prac tical rotorcraft, w hich promised to give form to humanity& #39;s visio n. The ten yea r period between 1925 a nd 1935 was an exciting time in aviation history, b ut few ai rcraft so caught a nd held the public9;s attention, as the Autogiro. Nicknamed the " ;flying windmill," this strange-looking aircraft was first s ucce ssfully flown in 1923 by the Spanish invent or, Juan de la Cierva, who had been wor king on the development of such a craft si nce 19 19. The Autogiro fascinated the air -minded publ ic becaus e of its rem arkable performance and hig h degree o f safety, attracting su ch leaders of Ame rican aviation as C harles Lindbergh an d Amelia Earhart. Juan de la Ci erva sold the Ame rican manufa cturing rights to Harold Pit cairn in 192 8. P itca irn' s Autogiro boaste d a more moder n fusela ge with bet ter aerodynamic qu alities. It also provi ded prosp ective b uyers wi th a choi ce of eit her a 300- or 420-hors epower engine. In the f ilm, Harold Pitcairn&# 39;s son St ephen flies "Miss Champion,& quot; a 1931 mo del. This Autogi ro, used for promotion by the Champ ion Spark Plug Company, is controlled l ike an ai rplane, but is lifted with blades. Al though the original rot or blades have seen 1,600 hours of flight time, the y are still airworthy. W ith a 330- horsepower W right R 975 -E engine, the A utogir o has a cruising speed of 98 mph and a top s peed o f 11 8 mph. "Miss Champion" led a National Air Tour and mad e the then-risky 300- mile- long flight from Miami t o Havana, Cuba. (Until then, t he longe st over-water flight by an Autogiro had been 25 miles in length.) Later, "Miss Champion"; flew nonstop over a distance of 500 miles to Chichen Itza in the Yucata n rainforest. " Miss Champion" was retire d from acti ve service in 1932 after s etti ng a new altitud e rec ord for rotary-w ing aircraft . Climbing to a h eight of 21,500 fee t in 1932, the Autogiro surpassed the pr evious recor d set by Ame lia E arhart. Today, the Au togiro is considered t o be the evolutionary "missing link&qu ot; from which the pract ical heli copter was born. Forty years later Stephen Pitcair n began the formidabl e task o f coll ecting and restoring ex amples of his father's aircraft. He tracked down "Miss Champion" and in Oc tober of 19 82 be gan the painstaking ta sk of rest oration, usi ng the original Pitca irn facto ry drawings. In the spring of 1985 & quot;Miss Champion" flew again. The Bell 47G: A F lying Less on Since P itcairn9;s Autogiro, improv ed control sys tems allow t he airframe to ri se di rectly from the groun d with a powered roto r. Stra ight Up! pu ts you in the pilo t's seat of a Bell 4 7G as the basic elements of helicopter operation are demonstrated. The Bell 47G's s ingle-rotor conf iguration is by f ar the m ost commo n type used today. Yo ur flyin g lesson begins. As a helicopter pilot, the pilot uses all four limbs to fly, all at the same time! W ith the left hand holding the collective pitch control lever, he pulls up ever so slightly, and we go str aight up into a slow-motion hover. The spinning rotor blades act as small wings, but they s pin so f ast that they create one continuous disc of lift. When the blades change angle, or p itch collectively, th e helicopter rise s or f alls. The pilot';s right hand always holds the cyc lic control, ef fecti vely tilting the wh irling dis c ab ove. Point lef t, tilt lef t. Point right, tilt right. The camera then closes in on the tail rotor. Once again, the altering of the bla des affects direc tion. The chopper spins in response to the pilot& #39; s depressin g one of the two foot pedals. If he depres ses the second pedal, the helicopter spins in the opp osite direction . T he Pi asecki H- 21B Tandem Rotor Ai rcraft, &quo t;The Flyi ng Banana" The last fly ing H-21B he licopter i n the world takes off, heads for the be ach and cruises 100 feet ab ove the Pacific su rf off the coast of Cal ifornia. One of the earliest tandem helicopters, t he H-21B represents t he bi rth of the heavy li ft helicopters an d dates back to the ea rly 1950s. Nicknamed " The Flying Banana" ; for it s shape , the H- 21B had more powe r and great er stability than previous helicopt ers. The tandem-rotor H-21B carries two sets of wood en blades situated n early 50 feet apart but operat ed by one se t of helicopter f light contr ols. The pilot mu st be ever vig ilant, as this helicopter could ra pidly invert should the pilot let go of t he controls . The vintage H-21B u sed for the film was decom missioned from the U .S. Air Force in 1972 and was restored by the California-based Classic Rot ors: T he Rare an d Vintage Rot ocra ft Mu seum . This nonprofit museum and restoration facility, dedi cated to the preser vati on of uni que, vint age a nd rare rotorcraft, spe nt more than 10,000 hours ret urning the H-21 B to airworthine ss. Every hour flown r equires 100 hours of mainten ance . Classic Rotors is the only museum of its kind to maintain eight helico pters in flying co ndition. When i ts new faci lity in San D iego has been com pleted, the muse um will expand i ts exhibits from 15 t o 30 vint age rotorcr aft. On e of the highl ights of i ts collection is a f amous relative of t he H-21B. This is a V 44 (th e commercial version of the H -21)-nicknamed " ;The Holy One"-and is the only one to land at the Vatican an d be b lessed by the pope. While on a 1959 demon stration t our in Europe, the heli copter and its crew had provided help to Italian communiti es f ollowing a devasta ting earthquake. Futu re Helicopt er De sign s On e aspect of curre nt resea rch cente rs around the development of &quo t;quiet tech nology&quo t; that will allow helicopters to become better nei ghbors an d to op erat e more stealthily in police and milit ary operations. Quiet technol ogy advances rely on a combination of technologies, which include improved rotor blade design and th e user o f rotor systems with four or m ore blades. Rep lacing the tail rotor with a Coanda-effect NO TAR (NoTailRo tor) system goes a lon g way in red ucing noise, as does shrouding the tail roto r in an arrangement know as a "fan-in-fin.&q uot; Other adv ances focus on noise-dampening air inlets and improv ed engi ne nozzl es. N ew helicopter designs are tested in the w orld' s largest wi nd tunnel at the NAS A Ames F light Research Center lo cated at Moffett Field i n Califo rnia. Ame s was founded in 1939 as a n aircraft research l aborato ry of the Na tional Ad visory Comm ittee for A eronautics, which became part of the Nati onal Aeronautics and Space A dmin istr ation (NASA) in 1958. NASA has the lead ing role in aerospace opera tions systems, whi ch in clude air traffic contro l, f light effects on humans, and rotorcraft tec hnology. NASA Ames scientists and engine ers study robotic helicopters , high-speed hybri ds, a nd advanc es i n quie t technology. The cen ter also has ma jor responsib ilities for the creation of design a nd deve lopment to ols and for wi nd tu nnel testing. The NASA-Bell XV-15 Tilt-r otor In the film, an XV -15 converts over Dallas -Fort Worth Airport. The XV-15 is an exp erimental rotorc raft, the parent of a new f amily of air craft c alled ";tilt-rotors. " The tilt-rotor combines the ho vering ability o f the helic opter with the speed of a fix ed-wing ai rcraft. The XV-15 can take off and land lik e a h elicopter. T he audienc e will see the en gines t iltin g forward as the tilt-rot or bec omes a high-speed plane. The Bell-Boei ng V-22 Osprey A V-22 O sprey unwrap s, emerging li ke a prehistoric fly ing di nosaur. Built p rimarily for the U.S. Marines, Air Force, a nd Na vy, the V-22 Osprey has wings that pivot and rotors that f old to facilitate its storage at sea. I n less than 90 seco nds, you will see t he V-22 complete this process. Although still cla ssified a s a til t-rotor, it is faster, with three tim es the range and more than ten times the p ayload of its predec essor. It s hows the pro mise of long-distance travel, without airports. The Hawk 4 Gyropl ane Rotorcraft evolution is als o in the hands of the entrepre neur, and thi s ind ependent s pirit is most evid ent in t he Hawk 4 Gyroplan e. While some designs produce ground breaking changes, this aircraft broug ht the eco nomy and safety of the Autogi ro into the space age. A rotor is use d for slow-speed fl ight, but at high-speed crui sing all the lift is pr ovided by th e wing while the rotor has n o lift. The Gy roplane shows pr omise as a high -speed, low-d isc-loading rotorcr aft. The Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Coma nche The Comanche rips and dips across the screen, set agai nst a sun set. This prototyp e helicop ter has stealth tech nology. It& #39;s sm art, agil e, fast and invisible to ra dar. It';s the first heli copter to provide real-time digital data to headq uarters . Seeing in the da rk, sensing the forces a t play aro und us and acting on th e evide nce in re al time, the Comanche is a complex flying m achine with a human being at its heart. Everyday, in unexpected ways, it extends our powe rs and puts us to work with a revoluti onary tool. The Co manche is the central element of the U .S. Army 9;s future Objective Force. In addition to its compl ement of missiles and 20 -mm cannon, the aircraft carries state-of-t he-art sensors and avionics to provide battlefiel d commanders with so much accurate inform ation about enem y movem ents. This knowledge will t ranslate in to more precise target ing, increas ing th e effectiveness of friendly forces beyo nd current ca pabilities. Th e U.S. Army has defined a requirement of more than 1, 200 Com anches for the Objective For ce. The RAH Comanch e, the ar my's 21st-ce ntury combat helico pter is being de velope d by the U.S. Army and a team of leading aerospac e companies headed by the Boeing Company and Sikors ky Aircraft Corporati on, a unit of Unite d Technolog ies Corporation. The Si korsky UH- 60 Black Hawk and AS 350 B 2 AStar Enforce the Law Events swiftly unfol d as the r adar plane spots an ";unidentified" Cessna dr opping bundles of drugs off the coast of M iami at dawn. A s ignal al erts the Marine and Air Branch of U.S. Customs who speed o ut to interc ept the sm uggl ers. Just as the drugs are transferred from bo at t o van , The AS tar helic opter bursts over the treeto ps, deploy ing a tacti cal team to ar rest the driv er. W hile the smuggler's Ci garette boat attempts to escape, a Black Hawk helicopter dips d own to create a giant ba ckwash. In a stunning dis play of impeccable teamwork, this action forces the fleeing boa t to swerve to a halt as a Customs boa t cuts it of f and apprehe nds the criminals. On a typical day, the U.S. Cus toms Service exa mines 1.3 million passengers, 2,642 aircra ft, 50,889 trucks/containe rs, 3 55,0 04 oth er veh icles , 588 v essels, 64, 923 entrie s and unde rtakes the follow ing enforc ement actions: 64 arrest s, 107 narcotic seizures, 223 other sei zures, 9 currency seizures. These amount to 5,059 po unds of narcotics, $44 3,90 7 in currency, $228, 803 in conveyances, $525,791 in mercha ndise and more than $15,800 in arms and ammuniti on. Filme d over a period of five days off the coa st of Miami, the air, la nd, and sea drug bus t was staged by the U.S. Customs Serv ice, which relies heavily on h elicopt ers duri ng such operations . U. S. Custo ms pilot, To m Stanton, participated in the shoot wi th his c o-pilot Kimberly Kessel. Kessel i s one of seven women U .S. Cu stoms pilot s an d only one of two qualifie d to fly Blac k Hawks. Both pilots volu nteered to work with the film crew. Says Kess el, a gradua te of Embry-Riddle A eronautical University, " They were p henomena l, read y to try anything." In additio n to day time flights, Stanton f lies the r iskier night mis sions. " ;Flying at night i s dangerous as you lose all pe rception of what&# 39;s up or down becau se bo th the sky and ocean are black, so they jus t kind of run in togeth er. There' s no horizo n on those dark nights," says t he veteran pilot. Typica lly he flies from 300 t o 500 feet above the water at 120 to 150 knots. &qu ot;Not ma ny people fly that low, even in the daytime," says S tanton. " There's no autopilot, so it 9;s hands on. Plus you're chasing someone. You have to be aware. It can get tense out there." Stanton describes an air chase: " ;Once there& #39;s a tar get, we launch a jet with radar. Th e jet p ilot calls the h elicopter out a nd we link up, fly ing in formation . We follow the bad guy wher ever he goes . If h e has extended- range f uel tanks, we leapfrog and se nd another h elicopter out to t ake up the chase. (The Black Hawk carri es five hours of fuel.) When he gets in to his landing configuration, we call the local police or sheriff to help us out. " ; The Bl ack Ha wk, which can carry up to 14 people, typically carries 4 or 5 armed perso nnel, ";so we instantly ha ve a force of police officers there to get the ba d guys. " "If it 9;s a boat, we have Cigarette boats like the smugglers. We&# 39;ll call ou r bo at and have it int ercept.& quot; S tanton flies the Bl ack Hawk nex t to the boat, making it hard for the smugglers to navigate. "It i ntim idates them into giving up. S ometimes t hey do [but ] sometimes we chase th em for hours. Or we&# 39;ll follow them into a m arina a nd block them until our boats come. If they hit the beach, we'll ca ll the state pol ice or she riff, and t hey set up a perimeter so the guy ca n't get out." Stanton, who flies missi ons as often as once or twice a week, h as been flying for 26 years, 1 3 of those as an army helicopter pilot before he joined U.S. Custom s in Miami where he is the "s tandardization instructo r pilot." He makes sure that every body flies the same way , so that when they team up, the pilots eas ily work in tande m. Pilots fly 8-hour shifts and the operation goes on 24 hou rs a day, 7 days a week in areas cover ing both the Canadi an and Mex ican land b orders, the Atla ntic and Pacific coastlines, and t he Gulf o f Mexico. T he MD 500E Helicopter A MD 500 helicopter hover s directly a bove 500,000-volt power lines. A s it inche s closer, a light ning bolt suddenl y zaps out f rom the hot l ine, arcing toward t he wa nd exten ded by a lineman perched on an aluminum platform that juts out from the helic opter. The & quot ;hot-line-qualified" lineman clamps o nto the power lines, and helicopter b acks off, leaving him to " ;wire walk," crawling along parallel lines to inspe ct t he PPL power l ine grid, 10 0 feet off the grou nd. To reb oard the helicopter, th e line man must ";bond off," re versing the procedure.< br/> & quot;I do n't g ive tw o hoots and a holler about flying inside a helicopter. Put me outside, that' ;s wher e I wa nt to be," says Daniel "Sp ider" Lockhart, AgRo tors li neman. There's only three things I 9;ve been a fraid of most of my lif e: One was electricity, one was heights and the other was women. A nd, I'm ma rried too," he grins. "The safest linem an is one t hat is afraid of electr icity. Wh en we bond to the power lines energiz ed at half-a-million volts, we have to bring ourselves to the sam e potenti al. That is why you see tha t arc jumping out to our wand as we make bot h the helicopter and the power li ne at the s ame potential, s o that we ca n eliminate the flow of curren t," explains the veteran lineman . Spider wears a protective hot suit, 75 percent Nom ex for fire re tardation and 25 percent sta inless steel thread. "T he m etal threa d basicall y means I have a cage around m e that can be energized at very high voltage levels. A half-milli on volts pass over my body, but I can work w ithout interference from the electricity." He continues, "Watchin g that el ectricity ju mp out while you' ;re energizing the helicopter is a thrill. Getting on the wir e, walk ing t he wire to do repairs is a thrill. The bigges t thrill I get is f rom doing what I do is being able to do both togethe r-the electrical part an d the helicopter part of it, the spe ed at which we can d o it and still b e safe. There are s o many thing s that the helic opter enab les us to do as linemen, which is very re warding.&qu ot; The teamwork of the skilled helicopter pilo ts and highly trained linemen ensure that t he PPL Corp. prov ides a con stant s ource of ele ctricity to its 1.3 million customers in Pennsylvania ( in addition to 4.4 million in Latin Americ a and Europe). To maintain the integrity of the transmission system to res idential and commerci al establi shments, and to ensure the safety of the op eration, the team plans a nd rehearses every m ove while on the g round bef ore takeoff . Even so, unanticipated gusts of wind and glare from th e wires ca n affect th e pilot's depth perce ption, r equiring tot al con centration during his hours at the controls. As the helicopter i s isola ted fro m the gro und, the pil ot and lineman, clad in p rotective st ainle ss steel suits, mu st bond onto t he transmission lines to bring themse lves to th e same vol tage potential of the line to w ork saf ely-paralleling what a bir d does whe n it sits on a wi re. P robably th e most u nusual place that the director rigged th e camera was on the end of the platform on the MD 500, which is de signed to carry t he line man as he bo nds onto the half-million-volt power li ne. "We took away the lineman and put the camera in his place; the l ineman rode behin d the camer a and used his wan d to draw the a rc of electricity right onto the camera lens. I don9;t think it's been done befo re. It b lew all the elec tronics out of the ca mera a couple of times befo re we figured o ut how to do i t," re calls Douglas. The B oeing 2 34 Hel icopter: Helilogg ing wit h Limited Environ ment al Damage F loating abo ve the forest in northern C alifornia, a 12-ton Boeing 234 helic opte r selects its target with precisi on. Selective l ogging is a pr ocess where o nly a portion of the avail able timber is removed from a logging site. A single tree is lif ted straigh t up fr om the forest fl oor, leaving the rest of the area envi ronmentall y int act. Removing such timber-very ofte n trees t hat are al ready dead or dise ased-allo ws the rema ining tre es to thrive on the additional resources of sunli ght, w ater, and soil nutr ients. Helilogging is env ironmentally friendly in other ways as we ll. First, since the lo gs are lif ted from the ground, litt le soil erosion, typic al of conventional logging m ethods, occ urs. S econd , in many c ases t he helico pter is able to us e exi sting roads for landings , meaning no ne w ro ads nee d to be built into the area being logged. Columbi a Hel icopters c uts more l ogs eac h year than any other helicop ter loggi ng company. To p repare the timber for th e helicopter, the sp ecia lly train ed logging crew cut it into c arefully weighe d sections. Columbia 's flight crews are among th e most experienced at lo ng-line work i n the world. With s peed and precision, they a re able to move hea vy load s of logs a t the en d of lines up to 350-feet long. On ce the line is l owered from th e Bo eing 234 heli copter, ste el tongs cla mp the log and th e entire tree is removed witho ut disturbing the balance of n ature. &qu ot;It 9;s kinda like look in' down 25 stories and picking up a teleph one pole," comments the helicopt er pilot, Da ve Stroupe, who deposit s the timber at a nea rby transfer yard. "Th e uniqu e thing ab out this helicopter is that, when we take off from the ground, we weig h approximately 22,000 pounds . And we' re rigg ed for ab out 26,0 00 pounds wh en we get low on fuel. So t he load actually weighs more than the helicopte r. It' ;s exc itin g and harrowing all at th e same time.&quo t; The Boeing 234s have a lift cap acity of 28,00 0 lb, (12,727 kg), but most often carry loads between 23,000 l b, (10 ,454 kg ) to 24,000 lb (10 ,909 kg ) due to elevation and air temp erature consideratio ns. The c ompany trains loggers to work with helicopt ers because load w eigh t is such a dramatic part of what they do. Weight is determined, using a formula, w hich ar e a fu nction of the volume and the type o f wood. Differen t tree species ha ve d ifferent weights per volume. When one of the pilots suggested usi ng t he log a s a platform for the camera, Douglas realized a noth er excit ing came ra angl e. The possi bility existed that the branch es co uld scrape off the camera as the log wa s ha uled up. Dou glas prevented this by pl acing the camera inside a heavy steel avalanch e box, which he anchored on the end of a big log. Once the log was grappled, the helicopter hauled the protected came ra right through the bra nches , givin g the aud ience a br eathtakin g view from the perspective of the log! The U. S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier , AH-1W Cob ra, CH-53E Super Stal lion and C H-46E Sea Knig ht on a Milit ary Missio n An AV-8B Harrier jet de mons trates it s vertical landing abil ity fo llowed by a force reco nnais sance inservice exercise from an a ircraft carrie r, as M arines climb aboar d the CH-5 3E. AH-1W Cobras and H arriers form an assault-suppor t package , as the reco nnaiss ance team se ts out on a missio n to ob tain invalu able intelligence about the ene my. Inside the CH-53E, the mac hine- gunner is at th e ready a s a Cobra fires three rockets. The action heats up as the IMAX came ra captures the Marines fast-roping thr ough the "h ell hole&qu ot; and slidi ng down a r ope dang ling from the CH-53E, landing in e nemy t erritory. The leader of the reconnaissa nce team says , "By the time you get to t ouch rope in a live si tuation, you a nd you r men feel tighter than family . Your fates are tied lik e the st rands of a rope. " Two hours later the Mar ines have completed thei r mission a nd are ready to be evacuated. Now the enemy hunts them on the ground. Trees shake as the r escue CH-53 E helico pter hovers overhead, lowering a rope to the squad, now u p to their waists in water . One after the othe r, in a matter of seconds , the men clip themselves onto the ro pe. & quot;Extraction, even more than insertion, is w hen yo u need speed. You've been awful quiet. Suddenly, you& #39;re awful loud,& quot; says Sgt. James Kenneke, the squad l eader. He 9;s first in and last out. Li fted up, lik e washing on a line, the squad dangles beneath the helicopter as it is escorted by Cobras, out over the Atlantic. "It ' s a relie f to get out. But there 9;s that m oment of doubt. Ev erything slows down while you're exposed � holding your breath for that h appy ending. And when y ou get it, you feel on top of the world . Of course, then we';ve got to c ommut e home just like everyb ody else," smiles Kenn ecke. The Mi-26 and M i-8 Deli ver Human itar ian Aid Sometimes, something very precious must be delivered behi nd enemy lines-food. Sierr a Leone is a nation that has suf fered years of c onflict. From the food d epot to the hot spot, helicopters provide an air br idge. Hoisting food and medical sup plies to dist ressed peo ple b ehind rebel-held territories, they have the abili ty to hop over hot zones i n despe rate s ituations. The world&# 39;s largest productio n helicopter-the Russia n-made Mi-26-is the wor khorse f or th e Un ited Natio ns (UN) pe aceke epin g operati on in war-torn Sierra Leone. T he heaviest prod uction helicopter i n the world, this majestic ei ght-blad ed craft-one of four ch arter ed by the U N from Russia-c an carry a maximum of 44,090 lb (20,04 0 kg) of internal paylo ad or up to 70 troo ps. The Mi-26's t op speed is 183 mph (2 95 kph) and it has a range of 304 miles (400 km ). In this sequence, the Mi-26 is loaded wi th cargo to supply UN t roops prot ecting an isolated comm unity in the center of rebel-held territory. The world& #39;s large st food agency, the UN World Food Program (WFP), organized a massi ve air campaign targeting internally displace d person s that had cong rega ted near a clin ic fo r ma lnourished children. Once re bels from the Revolution ary United Front (R UF) had su rround ed the a rea and block ed road ac cess , th e WFP was prevented from completi ng a bulk distribution. I nstead, they lo aded up their Mi-8 and flew to the Daru clinic where the most vulnerable women and chil dren were locat ed. &q uot;All children under fiv e who are malnourished are given a special fe edin g program in Daru. And the under-five are always the first ones y ou target for a ny kind of extre me malnourished cases, because t hey die ver y qu ickly," ; says Aya Shneerson, program officer for the WF P. "Daru is a kind of an island, a safe islan d, surroun ded by areas that are unsafe ," she says , "an d for that reason, it always served as a sort of magnet for the very vul nerable people coming o ut.&quo t; An other big W FP operation, Food for Peace, gives food to ch ild ex -comba tants , in an effort to a ttract them to disarmament and demobilization camps. The h eavily laden craft flew out of the capita l city, Freet own, situa ted on the west coast of Africa between Guin ea on the n orth and Liberia on the south. The WFP supervis es a variety of feed ing p rogra ms in the di splacement camps, feeding 5,000 in an opera tion that targeted Bunbuna, Kabala and Dar u in 2 000. Thro ughout the world, helicopte rs have saved millions of human lives. Ther e are 777 mill ion people in d eveloping c ountries, accord ing to th e WFP. In 2 001 the WFP fed 77 million hungry people (10 percent of the hungry poor) in 82 countr ies. Diamonds, which should h ave br ought prosper ity to Sierra Leone, inste ad resulted in on e of the modern world' ;s most brutal insurgencies, dating back to 1991 when rebels l aunched a war to overth row the gove rnment. In the ensui ng years, continuous battles be tween the various fac tions-rebels, the army and the go vernment-displaced tens of thousands of innocent civilia ns, resul ting in hun ger and famine. In 1 998 UN observers documented reports of ongoing atrocities and human r ights abuses. In 1999 ne gotiations began between the government and the rebels, and an agreement was sig ned in Lome to end hostilities an d form a government of national unity. By 2000, the UN' s ex pande d role resulted in the deployment of 17,500 mili tary peacekeeping personnel to various parts of the country. Free e lections in May 2002 have given hope and a fresh sta rted in Sierra Leone.< br/> The AS 3 50 B2 and A S 350 B3 Use d for Wil dlife Relocation In South Africa, helicopters a re helping to save the bla ck rhin o from extinction. Protected in a few remote preserv es, their numbers are rising. However, should the rhinos fee l overc rowde d, they will fight to t he d eath. T o protect t he species, some must be relocated to safe habitats, bu t this is easier said than done. A plat form dang les from a he licopte r overhea d. Inside another helicopter, flying low over the South Africa n veldt, a man with a rifle t akes aim at a black rhinoceros, dodging through the bushes below. The pil ot co ncen trates on flying 5 feet above and 10 to15 feet behind the rhino. Anticipating its every mov e, a wild life veterin arian pulls the trigger of his gun loaded with a tranq uilizer dart , sc oring a direct hit that successfully pene trates the rhino's inch-thick skin. "When I a m darting animals like th e black rhino, t here is this immense trust between my self and Piet, the pilot," says wildlife veterinarian, Dr . Douw Grobler, who specia lizes in immunizations and translocations. "I know exactly what he';s going to do and w here he's going to place me. I don 9;t have t o think. I can j ust concentrat e on the animals. I just know he's gong to put me there in the right spot at th e rig ht time . It's almost that he s enses what the animal's going to do. In that w ay, he can ch ange the animal's mind with his helicopter." Grobler h as me asured a specific drug dosage, which can keep a rhin o asl eep for up to two ho urs. Once the rhin o is darted, the ground crew lands as so on as possible to under take a multitude of tasks . Th ey monitor the beast';s v ital signs, t ake sk in and blood sam ples to study its basic health and to de tect an y nutri ents that are la cking. Thi s ensures that t he habita t is healthy for long-term propagation. They al so conduct pr egnancy testing. E ach rhi no's ear is notched so t hat it can b e identifi ed easily from the air and ground. The tip of the second h orn is remo ved to pr ovide material for genetic research, and a trans mitter is fitted into the rhino's ho rn for trackin g it s where abouts. P oachers present a cons tant danger t o the rhinos9; securi ty. Should a poache r remove t he hor n for export, the transmitter would trigger an alarm. When two mal es in habit the same t erritory, one m ust be reloca ted before they battle to the death . Placing a sling in position, t he crew rolls th e rhino ab oard the platform, making sur e it is fully asleep. With a lifting capability of 3,500 lb (1, 590 kg ), the AS tar B 3 can rel ocate the 2,250 -lb (1022 -kg) rhino to an a rea of the san ctuary that is accessible only by helicopt er. The exten sive researc h on el even blac k rhinos acquired during th e four-da y shoot was made p ossible on ly through SK Film's financial contribution. "My field of expe rtise lies in the capture and relocation of African wil dlif e. I am e xtrem ely grateful to St raight Up! for sponsoring this incredibly importa nt r esearch and relocation progra m at the game park. Without the film, this research would not hav e happened,&quo t; says Gro bler, who o rganized the capt ure, researc h and relocation project, with th e film&# 39;s producti on crew. "E very animal is just so valuabl e," he says, &quo t;and any informati on that c an be collected on them is wort h its weight in gold." The prehistoric ancestor of today's rhinos existed more than 50 million y ears ago. Among today 's five rhino s pecies , the black rhi no, wh ich has two horns, has suffered the most specta cular rate o f dec line. From a population of 65 ,000 in 19 70 it had been hunte d almost to ext inction, declining to a popula tion of 2,300 b y 1992-93. Cu rrent statistics i ndicate t hat the Afric an black rh ino pop ulation h as risen to 3,500 as a result of the pro tection of nature res erves, developed by conserva ncy groups, agencies an d governments to facilitat e breeding and reloc ation programs. This segment of Straight Up! was filmed i n one such reserve in South Africa, where black rhinos had been reintrodu ced in 1986. The helicopter, a n irre placeab le co 她朝 两边的贵宾席和下面的 看台，团团一揖，“佐 蒙人是肯定 要杀我的，他们善用渗透之法，所以，林蹊在此恳请诸位前辈，诸 位道友，看在我也算为仙界立过一点 功劳的份上，一起监 督一下， 在我未晋天仙之前，不要让任何人 ，以任何理由，打断我在 刑堂的工作。
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