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The Fulton Recovery System was used to recover spies, Special
Forces Soldiers, downed pilots, and other personnel who had to
be recovered from a denied area where an aircraft could not
land.
USAF HC-130H Conducting a Fulton Extraction
The Fulton Recovery System was designed by Robert Edison
Fulton, Jr. - a scientist who invented items that the military
could use. The system was put into use by the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) and U.S. Army Special Forces in the
1950s. Other Names. The Fulton Recovery System was also
informerly called "Skyhook" while the official Air Force name
was "Surface to Air Recovery System or STARS".
Procedure
A plane would drop a container about the size of a large
duffel bag that had a small, white, dirigible-style balloon,
small cannister (filled with helium), 500-foot long nylon rope,
overalls (similar to a smoke jumpers), and harness. The person
on the ground to be exfiltrated would put on the overalls, put
on the harness, attached it to the nylon rope, and then inflate
the balloon. The balloon would rise until the cable was at its
fullest length. The balloon wasn't buoyent enough to lift the
individual off the ground. An airplane would then return at a
designated time, snag the cable below the balloon with a locking
device (called a sky anchor), cut the balloon free, and reel the
cable into the aircraft until the person being exfilled was
inside the aircraft. The system could be used to exfiltrate one
or two personnel.
Aircraft. A commonly used USAF aircraft for the Fulton
Recovery System was the MC-130E Combat Talon I. The aircraft
would engage the balloon line (also called the 'liftline') with
a V-shaped yoke (sometimes referred to as 'whiskers'), cut away
the balloon, and retrieve the person at the end of the cable via
a winch. Red flags were on the line during daylight recoveries
and lights would be attached to the lift lin for nightime
recoveries. Fender wires ran from the nose of the aircraft to
the wingtips to ward off the cable should the yoke miss the
balloon rope.
Operational Use of Fulton Recovery System
Operation Coldfeet. The CIA successfully used the Fulton
Recovery System in May 1961 when it infiltrated some agents to
examine an abandoned Soviet "drift station" that used acoustical
equipment to track U.S. submarines. Two agents parachuted in,
conducted their mission, and were exfiltrated by the Fulton
"Skyhook". Operation Coldfeet is reported to have produced
intelligence of great value. 2.
The system was infrequently used and was finally phased out
in 1996 by the Air Force Special Operations Command. The last
unit to conduct the Fulton Recovery System (using only training
loads) was the 8th SOS at Hurlburt Field in 1995.
4. While it did not see much use as a
tool for
personnel recovery it was used by the CIA and Special Forces
for special operations missions.
There was only one fatality associated with the Fulton
Recovery System that occurred April 26, 1982 during a Flintlock
exercise in Germany. SFC Clifford Strickland of the 10th Special
Forces Group based at Fort Devens, Massachusetts died during this training event.
5. One version of the incident indicates
that the liftline slipped through the sky anchor (the V device
that captures the liftline) causing the individual to be lifted
into the air but then released. 4.
This may have been the last live pickup.
Earlier Personnel Recovery Systems
"Man Pick-Up Kit". The U.S. Army Air Forces used this
contraption to snatch up downed pilots. It was developed and in
use before the Fulton Recovery System. The Army Air Forces
technical manual provided some details of this system.
1. The first live tests were
conducted in 1943 during World War II. Another name for this
system may have been the "All American Aviation System".
One use of the "All American Aviation System" was to be used
in an unsuccessful CIA mission in 1952 in Red China. A aircraft
was to use the system to exfiltrate a Chinese agent working for
the CIA. Two pilots and two CIA agents flew to the location and
their aircraft was shot down during the attempted recovery
operation. The Chinese agent to be exfiltrated had been captured
and the recovery mission was a trap. The two pilots died and the
two CIA agents spent about twenty years in a Chinese prison.
3.
Videos of Fulton Recovery System
Skyhook | Top Secret Weapons Revealed, a 3-min
long video on the early Skyhook system developed by Robert
Fulton. Posted on YouTube.com by American Heroes Channel,
September 6, 2012.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4xlYpKrCnU
C-130 Hercules and the Fulton Recovery System, 1-min
long video posted on Facebook.com.
www.facebook.com/C130MRO/videos/627539404059611/
FULTON SKYHOOK Extraction of MI6 Operative and Femme
Fatale by B-17, a two-minute clip of a James Bond spy film
Thunderball showing the extraction of James and his
girl by Fulton Skyhook. YouTube.com.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dekJ2Ip7koo
Extraction Method, John Wayne exfiltrates an enemy
North Vietnamese senior officer via Fulton Extraction in the
movie The Green Berets. Posted on YouTube.com on
February 11, 2011.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=17z9A6Np2nA
Lockheed MC-130 Fulton Surface-to-Air Recovery System,
1 min, posted on YouTube.com Dec 9, 2008.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5GJ4cu311o
Fulton Recovery System / Skyhook / Project 46, Delta
Force, posted on YouTube.com, June 2, 2014, 17 minutes
long. Video footage shot in the late 1980's at Edwards Air Force
Base in California.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkNiOjJvlS4
Lockheed MC-130 Fulton Surface-to-Air Recovery System,
posted to YouTube.com on August 22, 2008. Depicts an overwater
pickup of an individual from a rubber raft.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dU9JntKuh0
The Debrief: Behind the Artifact - Skyhook, Central
Intelligence Agency, April 16, 2021, CIA YouTube, 3 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY4Uq-xgXf4&t=18s
Photos of the Fulton Recovery System
Lockheed HC-130H Hercules Rigged for Fulton Extraction.
Airliners.net
www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/Lockheed-HC-130H-Hercules/0226337/L/
Photo of Fulton Surface to Air Recovery System Balloon.
Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fulton_Surface_to_Air_Recovery_System_-_balloon.jpg
MC-130E - Fulton Sky Hook. American Special Ops.
www.americanspecialops.com/photos/usaf/mc-130e-photo.php
CIA Skyhook Extraction Instructions
(Source,
CIA Online Museum)
Webpages & Pubs About Fulton Recovery System
Fulton Surface-to-Air Recovery System by WikipediA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system
Thigpen, Jerry L., Colonel, USAF, Retired, The Praetorian
STARShip: The Untold Story of the Combat Talon, Air
University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, December
2001. This is probably the most complete history of
surface-to-air recovery systems starting from the early mail
pickup systems invented during the 1920s until 1996 when the
Fulton STAR system was shelved.
www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au/thigpen.pdf
See Appendix A - Live Fulton STARS Made by Combat Talon
Aircraft, page 467-472 and Figures 2-5.
Fulton Surface-to-Air Recovery System. National Museum of the
USAF. Posted on Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080201033959/http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1239
"Any experience with the Fulton Recovery System?",
SOCNET.com.
www.socnet.com/showthread.php?t=32611
Eremenko, A., How Fulton's surface-to-air recovery system
works, February 12, 2015, Department of Mathmatics, Purdue
University. A student provides the 'math' on how the system
functions.
www.math.purdue.edu/~eremenko/dvi/skyhook.pdf
The Fulton Skyhook STAR System, 9websites.
www.9websites.com/airforce/fulton.htm
Skyhook Extraction Mechanism Instructions, Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) Online Museum
https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/artifact/skyhook-extraction-mechanism-instructions/
"Robert Fulton's Skyhook and Operation Coldfeet", Center
for the Study of Intelligence, Vol 38, No. 5, Central
Intelligence Agency, PDF, pages 99 - 109.
News Reports & Articles about Fulton Recovery System
October 11,2015.
"Fact vs. Fiction of the Fulton Recovery System", by Mark
Hamilton, Cool Down Timer. The use of a system similar
to the Fulton Recovery System in a video game has prompted some
to investigate the real thing.
September 14,2015.
"How the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system became Metal Gear
Solid's secret weapon", The Guardian.
September 4, 2015.
"The True Story of 'Metal Gear Solid's' Fulton Recovery System",
by Matthew Gault, War is Boring.
October 16, 2012. "James Bond 'Skyhook' was a real device
used by CIA", Daily Mail.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218540/The-real-life-James-Bond-rescues-Flying-Skyhook-wasnt-just-007-helped-recover-CIA-agents-enemy-lines.html
December 17, 2006. "The Skyhook", by Jason Bellows, Damn
Interesting.
www.damninteresting.com/the-skyhook/
Endnotes
1. The U.S. Army Air Forces Booklet entitled Man Pickup,
Technical Order No. 03-1-57 provides more details on the 'Man
Pickup' system.
www.scribd.com/doc/287902565/U-S-Army-Air-Force-Man-Pickup-Manual.
See also
"Before the Fulton Recovery System, There Was the Man Pick-Up
Kit", by Joseph Trevithick, War is Boring, October
30, 2015.
2. CIA, Robert Fulton's Skyhook and Operation Coldfeet,
Historical Document posted April 14, 2007, Central
Intelligence Agency Library.
www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/95unclass/Leary.html
3. For more on the "All American System" read Two CIA
Prisoners in China, 1952-73, by Nicholas Dujmovic, Central
Intelligence Agency Library, Historical Document, posted April
5, 2007.
www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol50no4/two-cia-prisoners-in-china-1952201373.html
4. See Comments for the video posted on Facebook at this
link.
www.facebook.com/C130MRO/videos/627539404059611/
5. Info from The Praetorian STARShip: The Untold Story of
the Combat Talon, by Jerry L. Thigpen, Colonel, USAF,
Retired, Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama,
December 2001. See Appenix A.
www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au/thigpen.pdf. See also a
Wikipedia entry for "1982"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/April_26.
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