CAPFlyer wrote:
It's all kinda intertwined actually.
The HAP system from All American had two major drawbacks that saw it never used much -
1) It pulled the "victim" out at a low angle, meaning it was useless unless you had a fairly large clearing.
2) It caused the "victim" to go from stopped to full airspeed in a heartbeat, making it wholly unsuitable for injured personnel.
Fulton, seeing these issues thought he had an idea of how to fix both issues, allowing its use anywhere (and allowing the pickup aircraft to be at a higher altitude), having less equipment to be setup (thus allowing faster setup and less time for the "victim" to be exposed), and being softer so that someone with injuries could be safely retrieved. By using the balloon, he solved both problems. Because of the length of the line, there was a much more gentle acceleration, and the "victim" would be lifted for the first 50 or so feet vertically instead of immediately beginning to move horizontally, meaning pickups from areas with little or no clearing could be used.
His capture system was the final innovation because it meant the pilot could see the line all the way to capture, whereas the earlier system required a lot more skill once the line was lost from sight to not hit the "victim" while trying to capture the rope.
True on almost all points CAPFlyer. The All American rig did NOT immediately propel the "rider" to the aircrafts airspeed. Like the Fulton rig, the All American HAP from early on used a nylon leader line which brought the snatch force down to just over 7G's(from 17G in early attempts). The Fulton "kick in the pants" shock had a downside, in that the "rider" could be propelled to 75 feet above the slipstream of the snatcher and then he plunge to 200 feet or so below before he stabilised. Not a happy place if you're injured! Regardless the helicopter at both of the devices history made them little more than techno almosts.
As for "victims", the only "victim" I recall since both rigs were operational, was the fatality of the pickup passenger in Germany in 1982 during the last public display of the Fulton STARS.
The jury's still out on whether the intelligence services...Brit or otherwise, used the HAP in a "hot" application as it's been touted in the history books. So far STARS can't claim they achieved "hot" use either... But they do have Operation Coldfeet for a +1.
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