| Unmanned Rescue Helicopter - TGR Helicorp's Alpine Wasp |
NewsLover writes "
Researchers in New Zealand are developing a remote controlled chopper that can act as an air ambulance and rescue climbers from Mt Everest and other high altitude peaks. The helicopter, Alpine WASP, will begin test in April 2007 in the Southern Alps and around Mt. Everest in January 2008.
According to Trevor Rogers, President of TGR Helicorp, which is developing the Alpine Wasp, the helicopter would be remotely controlled by a ground pilot using information provided by onboard cameras and laser ranging sensors.
Each helicopter has six cameras on its fuselage and 10 on its nose – 5 looking forwards and 5 looking down. "The pilot sits in a virtual reality environment and could effectively be considered to be sitting astride the bulbous nose with a wide angle of view forward and down. Once a stranded climber has been located, the Alpine Wasp communicates with them using an 8.5-metre extendable proboscis with a camera and a small speaker attached to its end," New Scientist quoted Rogers as saying.
"The proboscis also has a Kevlar loop on the end capable of supporting any injured person. The operator extends the proboscis out to the climber using laser distancing equipment and, via the speaker, tells them to slip the Kevlar loop over his head and under his arms," Rogers said.
"After the climber has tightened a simple clamp around themselves, the helicopter can take off again. The weight of the climber detaches the loop from the pole and they swing below the craft, before being winched into a pod that closes behind them and provides oxygen and warmth," he said.
According to Rogers, conventional helicopters struggle at altitudes above about 4300 m (14,100 ft), at which point normal engines suffer from a lack of oxygen and blades experience reduced lift in the rarefied air.
To counter this, the Alpine Wasp will have extra wide blades to provide more lift and an engine modified to cope with thinner air. "It will also spin its rotors at a lower speed than normal. This is to avoid the rotor blades breaking the sound barrier - which is lower at high altitudes. This could change the airflow and cause potentially catastrophic instability," said Rogers.
"The proportion of the circle described by a helicopter's blades that is covered by the blades is known as the "solidity". It is usually around three to eight percent. I think they'll need two or three times more than that, so it'll look quite an odd craft," said Peter Bunniss, a rotorcraft researcher at Bristol University, UK, who also works for helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland.
"Having to spin the blades slower to avoid the reduced speed of sound will also reduce lift. It's an interesting challenge to take on," he said.
The Everest Rescue Trust will embark on a plan to start building a base at Namche Bazar, the main town within Sagarmatha National Park, which covers the southern half of Everest, sometime in May 2007 for housing two of these choppers. The base will also house a medical facility specializing in injuries as such frostbite.
"
|
|
| |
| Article Rating
|
Average Score: 3
Votes: 3
|
 |
|
