Gord Beaman wrote:
isme (NimBill) wrote:

snip

Getting jerked out of the air by a medium length cable is scary
enough.


I understand that that's not very stressful at all...I saw it
demo'd once, didn't look very vigorous, I believe they use nylon
rope which is quite 'stretchy' and delivers a smooth acceleration
to the 'victim'

Smooth, unless the rope snapped, as it did in some of the early trials
(killed at least one SEAL that way, IIRC). The Air Force finally decided
Skyhook wasn't all that useful and removed the pickup gear from its spec
ops Hercs a few years back. I think the sense is that with helicopter IFR,
you can simply tank a helo to pretty much anywhere and do the pickup in a
more conventional fashion.

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"Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when
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