Someone, somewhere, somehow, thought this was a good idea!
It is not an April Fools joke
A different age perhaps and I wonder if they were ever used operationally?
The EXINT Man Carrying Pod was designed by a British company called AVPRO for carriage by the Harrier, each outer wing hard point being able to carry a single Extraction/Insertion (EXINT) pod.
Each 4m long pod was designed to carry two people, or an equivalent weight in stores and equipment.
It wasn’t just a hairbrained scheme thought up by some mad professor but a direct result of operational experience in the Gulf and Balkans conflicts where the extraction of downed aircrew and covert insertion beyond helicopter ranges of special forces personnel. The pod itself was equipped with full oxygen and heating systems to enable the carriage of personnel at high speeds and altitudes and was even fitted with a satellite assisted recovery system with a parachute, should the pilot be forced to jettison the pod.
The design evolved to one that could only take a single person but in a much lighter pod.
Although Defence Evaluation and Research Agency completed fit checks on a Sea Harrier and GR.5, live trials, with actual real people were not carried out.
The pods were also shown with Apache helicopters and it was rumoured that Israel bought some of the initial production run, made by Hunting Engineering.
They were even thinking ahead to the F35
Of course, nothing in this world is new
The image above shows a Spitfire with canvas ‘man bags’ that were hooked over the protruding gun barrels.
There is also the current method of personnel carriage on the Apache, without the pod
Space for Red Trousers, his reconnaissance bicycle and a selection of firearms in one…and his Batman, the radio equipment and a case of claret in the other…I’m astonished it didn’t come into regular use…
You did not really believe that Germans did not have this idea long ago already, did you? ;)
http://www.luftarchiv.de/bordgerate/behalt7.jpg
http://www.luftarchiv.de/bordgerate/ju87.gif
http://www.luftarchiv.de/bordgerate/agent.gif
http://www.luftarchiv.de/bordgerate/behalt3.jpg
http://www.luftarchiv.de/bordgerate/behalter.htm
Might have to convince him to switch to a folding bicycle:
http://www.tuvie.com/antares-lift-portable-track-bicycle/
http://www.tuvie.com/wp-content/uploads/antares-lift-foldable-bicycle1.jpg
Reminds me of the chopper in the opening sequence of M*A*S*H
Great stuff Sven, were they ever used operationally
My favourite picture is the cutaway, the one with the nice young lady and matching vanity case
“Operational usage saw a few developmental problems, mainly in the habit of young hot blooded pilots launching their passengers into enemy tank convoys”. :P
Notice the serial number of the F-35……..
….straight out of Q-Branch!
TD should send the link to Easyjet.
And then someone said “excuse me sir, would it not be easier to refuel a helicopter…”
Still might be a good way of transporting techies to the front line :D
Finally, a British answer to the V-22 Osprey!
I bet the USMC are wondering what they got for their money now.
Does anyone know if MoD actually bought any of these!?
Just how many places can a Harrier or F35 actually land, surely they need some form of solid ground, or there would be no need for expeditionary runways.
Roads….
Ermmm, one hopes that appropriate sedatives would be supplied…..
@GNB
Firearms? For RT? Wouldn’t selection of sabres, bayonets and a lance, be more appropriate?
Almost as bat-shit insane as the launch and recovery method for the sea harrier with cranes…
The webpage says no, but you never know.
Agentenbehälter = agent container
May have been used in secret; too many documents were lost to ever know.
It was meant to be dropped, with three parachutes. One intended action was to drop agents for sabotage on industrial targets in the Ural, but the Ju87 association indicates that less extreme missions were intended as well.
There was also an outboard container for transportation of hardware into pockets, using bombers which lack the doors to unload bulky material (such as anti-tank guns) from inside. (on same link)
GNB, if you think I’m entrusting my batman’s life and a case of claret to a Kevin….
I have a fear of Chinooks as it is, or more specifically, Kevins flying Chinooks. The only helicopter that can have a crash with itself. Honestly, how far would you trust an “officer” whose immediate family you did not know pretty well, who went to a school you’d never heard of, and for whom a penchant for polyester and a wife or girlfriend called Tracey were not marks of deep shame?
The good news is that the Brompton will fold up small enough. And that the designers were sufficiently forward thinking to include plans for RecceWoman 3.0 in their design. She seems to be a foxy chick in a 1970s Air Hostess uniform.
On a batshit level, it seems to be on a par with the Soviets chucking fully crewed BMDs out of the back of Antonovs. The sudden impact at the end is not the problem, it is the interminable whining and passive aggressiveness of the RAF Movers that would do you in.
I think her skirt is a bit long for anything after 1965…which means she probably has a corset underneath it as well… :-)
On the other hand, if we had persevered with it…and with current IT systems available to manage the pick-up perhaps it was possible…we could have a couple of F35B on all our larger surface vessels; help to justify that order for up to a hundred and fifty as well (Posted in memory of @x…I really miss the old curmudgeon)… :-)
Umm, corsets. Bugger to get into. OTOH, very sexy. If you get things right, the girl concerned is usually abnormally pleased that you have got her out of it.
The first naked girl I think I saw was a BOAC stewardess when aged 8 I had to fly from Heathrow to Karachi, via somewhere I forget in the Middle East in the very early 70s, as an Unaccompanied Minor, and we shared a room on an overnight stay, and I think my parents then in Quetta had paid a supplement for me to be nannied by BOAC for a school holiday visit. Young RT was not involved in rumpy pumpy that young, but she did not seem to mind. I can recall that she had not matching collars and cuffs, and I was quite curious. She also had a prodigious amount of underwear armour.
She seemed to find it quite difficult to answer the simple question “why is the hair on your head a different colour?”, but not too fussed.
Pleased to report that in my younger days corsets and the like had a considerable vogue as outerwear…very greatly added to the gaiety of nations (or at least Gloomy)…and they are still much favoured by the young people of the Goth or Emo tribe to be found hereabouts…bloody good thing all round in my view…
Outerwear?
Mrs GNB should give you a boxing about the ears. You need to unwrap your presents nightly, and if you are not giving her enough to spend on exciting inner wear, Lord help you.
Cocoa and the Shipping Forecast at Gloomy Court I’m afraid – it’s grim up North, you know…
In which case you need Carol Something, the Beeb Good Morning weather presenter. Relentlessly cheerful, and the sort of wonderful Everywoman that does our nation proud. And possessed of a tremendous chest.
I spend 3 or 4 nights a week in ghastly hotel rooms, because strangely Cambridgeshire is not the centre of the defence industry. She and Susanna Reid are mostly who I wake up to at 6 am. Sad.
very james bond :-)
This is what happens when you don’t have any Westland Lysanders anymore.
Some mornings I wake up Grumpy. Other mornings I let her sleep. To be fair, no one should have to be up at 0500, but I have to relieve one of my officers at or before 0700.