Fulton surface-to-air recovery system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This system was developed by inventor Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. for the United States Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1950s. It was an evolution from a similar system that was used during World War II by American and British forces. The earlier system did not use a balloon, but had a pair of poles that were set in the ground on either side of the person to be retrieved, with a line running from the top of one pole to the other. An aircraft (usually a C-47 Skytrain) would trail a grappling hook and engage the line, which was attached to the person to be retrieved.

In Thunderball (1965) film, the sky-hook system is used at the end to pick up Bond and Domino from a life raft.

Fulton surface-to-air recovery system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia