Straight Up: Helicopters in Action

How much further, mom?

We're just below the pass.

An avalanche! An avalanche!

Oh, my god, no!

Rega, emergency, Mueller.

Help us! We're trapped. I can't see my son!

We've been hit by an avalanche!

Raphael, talk to me. Raphael!

Rega to Rega 9. Avalanche emergency.

Engadine Road below Bernina pass, over.

Rega 9, roger. We are airborne.

Rega to Rega 9,...

...update on your avalanche.

The GPS co-ordinates are 8-0-0-7-7-5...

...on 1-4-4-5-2-5.

Rega 9, roger.

- They're coming! They're coming! - Raphael!

Hurry, I think I see him!

Rega 9 to Rega.

We have a visual on the accident, over.

Roger, Rega 9.

Raphael, can you hear us?

Can you hear us?

Just so you know, mom's actually a good driver.

Ready for transport.

I had a concussion. But I remember this really cool sound.

If you have to go to the hospital, take my advice.

The best way is by helicopter.

A child born into a world with helicopters,...

...lives in a world where the miraculous is commonplace.

A world where doctors swoop down from the sky.

For generations we dreamt of vertical flight.

Yet by 1930, we were still at the dawn...

...of the practical rotorcraft.

Helicopters couldn't lift patients to safety.

They could barely lift themselves safely.

The necessary control systems had yet to be invented.

And so, before the helicopter,...

...we had this: the Autogiro.

Controlled like an airplane,...

...but lifted on blades like a helicopter,...

...the Autogiro was a hybrid...

...an evolutionary Missing Link,...

...from which the working helicopter was born.

The helicopter could hover in one spot.

It had an improved control system.

And, as a result, a new kind of pilot.

A pilot who uses all four limbs to fly,...

...all at the same time.

Watch his left hand carefully.

He's holding the collective pitch control.

As he pulls up on it straight up!

The blades act as small wings,...

...but spin so fast...

...they create one continuous disc of lift.

And when those blades collectively change angle, or pitch,...

...the aircraft rises or descends.

The pilot's right hand points the cyclic control,...

...tilting the whirling disc above.

Point right, go right.

Point left, go left.

This is the chopper's tail rotor.

Once again, altering the angle of the blades affects direction.

The chopper spins in response to the pilot...

...depressing one of two foot pedals.

If he depresses the other foot pedal...

...it spins the other way.

There's no one in the world...

...for whom flying a helicopter comes naturally.

But practice produces pilots as adept as the aircraft they fly.

By the early 1940's,...

...the whirlybird had gained acceptance.

But we wanted more power, more stability.

Nicknamed the Flying Banana,...

...this tandem rotor workhorse from the 1950's...

...lifted troops and supplies at record speeds.

The helicopter was a success.

We started to wonder:...

...what can it do for us next?

In wind tunnels like these...

...at California's NASA Ames Research Center...

...new helicopter ideas are tested.

Ideas like: robotic helicopters,...

...high-speed hybrids,...

...and advances in quiet technology.

But not all the complexities of helicopter flight...

...can be modeled in smoke, or mathematics.

Ok, let's do the conversion now.

The XV-15 is an experimental rotorcraft.

It's the parent of a new family of aircraft called Tilt Rotors.

You just have way too much fun in that thing, you know that.

Here we go.

Taking off and landing like a helicopter,...

...its engines can pivot forward in flight;...

...turning a helicopter into a high-speed airplane.

The V-22 Osprey has wings that swing, and rotors that fold,...

...to facilitate storage at sea.

It's still a Tilt Rotor, but faster;...

...with three times the range,...

...and over ten times the payload of its predecessor.

In less than 90 seconds you get this:...

...the promise of long distance travel without airports.

But rotorcraft evolution is also in the hands of the entrepreneur.

That independent spirit takes flight in this Gyroplane.

While some designs produce ground-breaking change,...

...this aircraft brought the economy and safety of...

...the Autogiro into the twenty-first century.

We're being watched...

...and by someone who's invisible.

At least on radar.

Comanche's rigid rotor, seamless skin,...

...and enclosed fan-tail make it agile and stealthy.

It's smart, fast...

...and ready to win the game of hide and seek.

Where is the enemy?

Where are my friends?

Comanche will be the first to know.

And knowledge means survival.

The helicopter is a complex, flying creation...

...a revolutionary tool with a human being at its heart.

Every hour, of every day, it extends our powers,...

...fires our imagination...

...and puts us to work.

Five miles southeast of Sand's Key.

Two-five-two-five north, eight-zero-zero-five west.

Airdrop in progress. Airdrop in progress.

Out over the Caribbean, US Customs is on watch.

Roger, that.

Looks like over twenty-five bales and still dropping.

We've got a go-fast boat coming in for the pick-up.

And four-five Charlie Sierra, suspect aircraft is bugging out.

Roger, Omaha four-nine. Stick with that aircraft.

Helos are on the way.

You hear that alarm you start running to the aircraft.

Fast.

Engine power control levers to fly.

Droop stops coming out.

Generator light one and two coming off.

- Clear to go? - Good to go.

Smugglers used to run narcotics under cover of night...

...now they try it any time.

Omaha nine-nine...

...Eight-five Whiskey's turning north for the take-down.

Nine nine, roger.

We'll cover the back door.

C'mon man, c'mon, c'mon!

Move it. Let's go!

Take-down in progress.

Get down on the ground. Hands where I can see 'em.

Suspect boat is running east.

Nine-nine is inbound, low level.

We've got marine back-up three miles south.

Roger, that. Let's cut these guys off.

In an hour, they can be back in international waters.

And I don't want to see them again next week.

If they don't back down,...

...we get creative with the rotor wash.

It whips up the sea spray.

Makes it real hard for them to navigate.

And that buys us time.

Let me know when they're in the wash.

Five-five-one-four, they're all yours.

We're on 'em.

It's a cat and mouse game...

...and I hate mice.

The helicopter extends the long arm of the law...

...and empowers this white knight on a quest...

...to keep the juice flowing.

I don't give two hoots and a holler about flying inside a helicopter.

Put me outside, that's where I want to be.

On the magic carpet.

Back in the late 1800's...

...there was a gentleman by the name of Michael Faraday.

He had a theory that if you enclosed a man in a metal cage,...

...and energized that cage, at whatever voltage,...

...the man would still live.

The voltage would flow around him.

I wear a hot suit.

It's 75% Nomex for fire retardant,...

...and 25% stainless steel thread.

And that metal thread means...

...I have a Faraday cage around me.

A half a million volts pass over my body,...

...but I can work without interference from the electricity.

As long as the helicopter is isolated from ground,...

...we have the ability to bring ourselves...

...to the same voltage potential as the line...

...like a bird on a wire.

Our pilots are very smooth.

It's like they can read our every thought.

There's such a hunger for electricity these days.

Nobody wants to take lines out of service...

...just to maintain them.

I've had many people ask me:...

...'Do you think what you do is safe'?

And I say, well, in our operation everything that we do,...

...every move that we make is thought of and rehearsed before,...

...so it's as safe as crossing the street.

It's not a job for a hot dog.

There's only three things I've ever been afraid of:...