Hummingbird Posted November 7, 2015 Posted November 7, 2015 (edited) Having just seen the movie Everest which depicts the tragic events of the 1996 disaster where 8 climbers lost their lives, I came to wonder about high altitude choppers for medevac purposes. One of the reasons for the 1996 disaster was the inability to evacuate some of the victims with the helicopters available due to the great height at which they were stranded - the choppers simply couldn't go that high and still carry an additional person. This had me wondering wether or not there actually is any commercial or military helicopter in the world today which would be able to safely operate at ~29,000 ft both before and after picking up a couple of stranded people. I know that a Eurocopter AS350 B3 succeeded in landing on the summit at 29,029 ft, but that was with one pilot and I doubt it could've picked anyone up and still operated safely. Is there any helicopter currently available that could though? And if not what do you think it would take in terms of design? Edited November 7, 2015 by Hummingbird
sobek Posted November 7, 2015 Posted November 7, 2015 There's very few companies that need to operate their helicopters at such heights, therefore it's commercially rather unattractive to design a helicopter solely for extremely high altitude operation. You're going to have a hard time finding a machine beating the AS350 B2/B3. Good, fast, cheap. Choose any two. Come let's eat grandpa! Use punctuation, save lives!
Hummingbird Posted November 7, 2015 Author Posted November 7, 2015 Perhaps, however the listed service ceiling of the B3 is surprisingly rather low - noticably lower than that of an S-70 for example.
Aginor Posted November 7, 2015 Posted November 7, 2015 I vaguely remember an article I read long ago about a special high altitude version of the Mi-8, but I don't remember the numbers. No clue if it could make 30,000ft. That's a lot. DCSW weapons cheat sheet speed cheat sheet
sobek Posted November 7, 2015 Posted November 7, 2015 (edited) There's a documentary floating around on youtube following around a few pilots in the Himalaya. It might provide you with some insight why sane pilots usually don't fly at these heights and why the machine is only rated for a much lower ceiling. Edit: I just remembered it's about a Swiss medevac team operating in Nepal and training local pilots and it's in German, so that's probably not of much use to you. :noexpression: Edited November 7, 2015 by sobek Good, fast, cheap. Choose any two. Come let's eat grandpa! Use punctuation, save lives!
Hummingbird Posted November 8, 2015 Author Posted November 8, 2015 (edited) I wonder if a lightened S-70 would be an option though. Interesting regarding the modified Mi-8, can't find anything on it though. The Mi-17 is rated for a 6,000 m (19,690 ft) ceiling though. Edited November 8, 2015 by Hummingbird
sobek Posted November 8, 2015 Posted November 8, 2015 They usually use relatively small and nimble types for mountain rescue (at least here in Austria (EC 135) and Switzerland (AS 350/Alouette II)). I suspect that purchasing/operating cost is the driving force there. Good, fast, cheap. Choose any two. Come let's eat grandpa! Use punctuation, save lives!
Yurgon Posted November 9, 2015 Posted November 9, 2015 There's a documentary floating around on youtube following around a few pilots in the Himalaya. It might provide you with some insight why sane pilots usually don't fly at these heights and why the machine is only rated for a much lower ceiling. Edit: I just remembered it's about a Swiss medevac team operating in Nepal and training local pilots and it's in German, so that's probably not of much use to you. :noexpression: Following this hint, I watched the documentary and for anyone remotely familiar with the German language I can't recommend it enough! Die Bergretter im Himalaya
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