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Project Coldfeet
- Fnoord 7y agoI would swear I've seen a movie with this plot (not a recent one), but I don't see it mentioned on the Wikipedia page. Anyone know the movie name, or am I wrong?
- __ryan__ 7y agoThe Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) uses the surface to air system used in this operation as a plot device, I believe.
- brox 7y agoYou may be thinking of Ice Station Zebra (1968). The Wikipedia page mentions Project COLDFEET as one of the inspirations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Station_Zebra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Station_Zebra
- joosters 7y agoThe related wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery... mentions use of the recovery system in Thunderball, The Green Berets, and The Dark Knight.
- trymas 7y agoPersonally this article turned out to be more interesting for me than the original post. I've seriously thought that it existed only as a movie effect and not in real life.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoI read (and can't recall the source) that, when they tested this system, they first tried it on a pig. But the pig couldn't use arms and legs to stabilize itself, and so it spun while being winched into the plane. It entered the plane in a disoriented state. When it recovered (?) from that, it attacked the crew. Good times... ;-)
- joosters 7y agoFrom https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/95unclass/Leary.html https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intellig... : Lifted off the ground, the pig began to spin as it flew through the air at 125 mph. It arrived on board undamaged but in a disoriented state. Once it recovered, it attacked the crew.
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoYes, that was it.
- visika 7y agoI thought those balloons in Metal Gear Solid were completely made up!
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bmgxyz 7y agoDid this system for surface-to-air recovery more or less get its lunch eaten by helicopters? Still, pretty neat.
- alkonaut 7y ago970km one way is very long for a helicopter. That's the reason they didn't use one in this case. I'm not sure if there are any helicopters to this day that will do 2000km without refueling. Helicopters these days can at least get one way, so the simplest solution today would probably be dropping return fuel from a cargo plane or doing in-flight refueling of a helicopter.
- anamexis 7y agoOut of curiosity, wouldn't refueling the helicopter in-flight require another helicopter (with the same range problem)?
- londons_explore 7y agoI don't know if this was done, but it's totally possible to get a helicopter to carry a tank of fuel and leave it floating midway in the ocean (or on ice strong enough to land on). You can then go back, refuel, and this time go the whole way, stopping off for fuel at your new midway point. You just need to make sure you don't forget where you put the fuel!
- jsight 7y agoMid-air refueling a helicopter does not require another helicopter. It could be a KC-130.
- mattkrause 7y agoIf you have enough equipment, you can set up a relay where tankers themselves get refueled by other tankers. This can dramatically extend the range of a small number of aircraft, though the logistics (and expense) gets out of hand quickly. The British did this during the Falklands War in 1982. In Operation Black Buck, a bomber from Ascension Island (near the equator), attacked Port Stanley Airport (~52°S, about 12000 km away). To do so, the bomber was refueled 7 times on the way out (and once on the return), while a fleet of tankers refueled each other 9 more times. Wikipedia has a diagram showing how this worked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck#/media/File:Refuelling.plan.black.buck.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck#/media/Fi...
- hirundo 7y agoThis station was on relatively thin drift ice. It seems that the soviets could have sunk it with some bombs or maybe an oil fire. Or drill a hole and drop in the sensitive equipment. Maybe they didn't think the secrets were worth the effort. I wonder how much of the mission was driven by a desire to deploy the skyhook.
- ffmike 7y agoIf you're intrigued by this, William Leary's book "Project COLDFEET: Secret Mission to a Soviet Ice Station" is definitely worth a read.
- labratmatt 7y agoSome incredible 1989 video of the Fulton Recovery System/Skyhook at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkNiOjJvlS4&feature=youtu.be&t=130 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkNiOjJvlS4&feature=youtu.be...
- 76543210 7y agoSo they literally stole equipment? That's not cause for war?
- ztratar 7y agoIf it was, the US would have declared war on China a decade ago. Non-violent theft is a common geopolitical strategy.