Grappling hooks can get you up a vertical wall. But U.S. Special Forces are looking for something better. "These teams are often required to carry hundreds of pounds of gear, making traditional climbing methods strenuous and dangerous," Lt. Col. David Shahady of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) tells PM. http://www.popularmechanics.com/_mo...7466?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews There's a great vid at the end of the link Last August, students from 17 universities and the three armed forces academies were each given $20,000 and tasked with creating a superior vertical ascender for the annual AFRL Design Challenge. After nine months of effort, the teams came together this spring to put their hardware to the test at Calamityville, the National Center for Medical Readiness training facility at Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio. The goal: get four special ops personnel over a 90-foot sheer concrete face with innovative climbing equipment. The winner among the universities: Utah State University and its suction solution. The team’s "sucking ascender" is made from hand pads that can stick to the wall through battery-powered suction. The Personnel Vacuum Assisted Climber, or PVAC, can stick a soldier weighing up to 200 pounds along with 100 pounds of his or her gear to a vertical, or even horizontal, wall or rock face. Twin electric motors worn on the soldier’s back generate 3.5 pounds per square inch of sucking power. Footrests attached to the pads with cables support the soldier’s weight while he or she shifts the pads, one at a time, to climb up. Rechargeable batteries can run the PVAC for up to half an hour—plenty of time to get over just about any size wall.
"At about 45 pounds, the Utah State system is on the heavy side. But it more than makes up for it in sucking power" Sounds perfect to me!!
Very cool concept very long way to go for tactical applications in my opinion. I wonder how it works on non-uniform surfaces such as rock with ill-regular angles. Loud, bulky, battery powered but very smart, innovative and worth watching. I think in this configuration it could be very useful in some applications such as fire rescue or the like... I'm not a big fan of accenders, pole devices and grappling hook designs either. We have had some injuries with these types f devices over the years in my civilian occupation.
Wow, this sounds vaguely familiar... Where have I heard the suction cup idea before? Oh yes: http://mythbustersresults.com/episode54 Adam failed, to an extent, at scaling a metal air duct but did pretty well going up the glass building.
just a question, how would it do on a surface with lots of debris on it? It seems the suction method wouldn't work if the SEAL wasn't completely secure, whats to stop a little too much dust/sand/gravel/etc. from unsecuring the pad and then presumably the user and sending them down the wall?
not sure why I capitalized SEAL, my bad. But another thing what about cracks in the surface? wouldn't a crack through your surface destabilize the pressure in the pad? or at least make it weaker? I'm more than a little worried about this thing carrying people, let alone our elites. Seems to me like a lot can go wrong on this and it could lead to some pretty bad injuries.
We have a couple of those built in, mostly to help members from stepping on it and getting a dogpile started. Sometimes it backfires a bit, as in this thread ;)
They need to use the motor from a Dyson... guaranteed to never loose suction.... Or one of the chicks from Tilicum.....
