Helicopters perform stunningly in Shenzhou spacecraft recovery
At 9:56 a.m. on April 16, 2022, the return capsule of Shenzhou 13, a manned spacecraft that had been traveling in space for 183 days, landed safely on the Dongfeng landing site with three Chinese astronauts on board, successfully completing China's longest-ever space mission in manned spaceflight, and setting a new record for the Chinese manned spaceflight project!
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In the morning of April 16, 2022, countless Chinese viewers were in front of their TV sets to witness the historic scene, especially the video of the moment when the return capsule finally landed, which was incredibly thrilling to watch, and these shocking live images were taken by a special helicopter unit. These helicopters and the personnel they carry, in each landing process of the return module, they are the first to arrive at the landing point, the earliest to come to the side of the return module recovery support unit; is each time the astronauts re-entry process, the first batch of visual return capsule people! This helicopter unit is called the Dongfeng Landing Site Search and Rescue Recovery Air Detachment!
Shenzhou 13 landing process video, by the air detachment in the command aircraft installed on the high-definition photoelectric camera shooting and real-time back to the transmission. The video can be seen in the return module is still in the air, the helicopter is in a very close distance at high speed rushed to the return module landing position, the distance is less than 1 kilometer, the first time to capture the return module landing the whole process of high-definition picture, but also clearly demonstrated the return module after landing posture. From the moment the return capsule landed, to the command aircraft landed on the right side of the return capsule, it took only 50 seconds! 10 seconds later, the medical supervision and medical insurance helicopter landed on the left side of the ground, 1 minute and 20 seconds later, there are already three helicopters landed on the side of the return capsule, and the personnel on board have already disembarked from the aircraft and started their work in the vicinity of the return capsule! When the astronauts had not yet recovered from the bumpy landing, search and rescue support personnel had already arrived around the return module.
Helicopters are widely used in spaceflight activities because of their fast maneuverability and flexibility in landing and taking off. Helicopters have long been used in manned spaceflight recovery operations, whether for sea landings in the United States or land land landings in Russia. China's various space recovery missions have also seen a large number of helicopters, has established a set of very perfect and mature utilization mechanism. In the case of the recovery and search and rescue mission, five helicopters were deployed, including a command aircraft, a medical surveillance and medical insurance aircraft, two medical rescue aircraft and a communication relay aircraft.
Additionally, as a supplemental force to deal with emergencies, there is a fixed-wing aircraft carrying parachute personnel, standby at an altitude of 5,000 meters, in the event that the fall point error is far, the helicopter can not quickly arrive at the situation, you can rely on the fixed-wing aircraft faster speed to quickly go out by parachute the way to the scene of the emergency rescue forces arrived to deal with.
These helicopters are all active military transport helicopters of the People's Liberation Army Land Aviation Force, all of which are Russian-produced Mi 17 series, the mission has a Mi-171, three Mi-17V-5, a Mi-171E **** five helicopters involved in the central theater of operations, all equipped with a brigade of the Army Aviation Corps. The brigade formerly known as the General Staff of a land navigation regiment, from the first manned space flight mission, the Department is China's space "Shenzhou" manned space flight "Royal" air search and rescue recovery unit.
In order to better carry out the task, these helicopters have carried out the relevant task equipment plus modification. One of the command aircraft, in the nose below the addition of a large high-definition photoelectric pods, and in the cabin installed the corresponding command seat, responsible for the scene of the overall command of the units of the search and rescue; medical supervision and medical insurance helicopter and medical rescue helicopter added a variety of medical supervision, first aid equipment, is mainly responsible for astronauts of the body of the medical examination, monitoring, and in the case of bodily injuries occurring in the astronauts for the first time emergency medical treatment; communications The repeater is equipped with all kinds of radio and satellite communication equipments, which is responsible for establishing remote real-time communication with the command center for all kinds of search and rescue forces during the search and rescue.
From the effect of the search and rescue, the search and rescue force has been in the implementation of such tasks with ease! The air force has realized effective visual tracking of the return capsule before the capsule landed, and arrived near the capsule to accompany the capsule in the air to land together, with an interval of only 50 seconds. The color video signal returned by the command aircraft is continuous and clear, much better than the black-and-white and jerky video returned by Shenzhou XII! The medical helicopter landed immediately after the start of the work, while the communication relay aircraft has been hovering over the landing point, to protect the site of a large number of communication needs, until a large number of ground vehicles and personnel arrived at the scene and assumed the satellite communication equipment before landing. The whole process of search and rescue recovery by the airborne detachment was fast, efficient and well organized! After completing the medical supervision and insurance work at the landing site, these helicopters were also responsible for the aerial transfer of the astronauts who had completed the physical examination to the nearby airport, and then transferred back to Beijing by the Air Force's special airplane.
The helicopters have been widely used in the search and rescue recovery work of China's aerospace projects, and have achieved quite good results. The shortcoming is that at present, involved in the task is still foreign imported helicopters, domestic helicopters have not yet been put into the corresponding task, which is mainly responsible for the task of the force is still to Mi 17 series helicopters as the main equipment, the domestic Straight-8 series helicopters and the size of the Russian Mi 17 series of helicopters, tonnage, performance, and the electronic equipment is more advanced! Newly developed straight -8L type helicopter has a very spacious fuselage, can install more mission equipment, its plateau performance and the ability to use in harsh environments is also quite excellent, instead of the Mi 17 series to carry out search and rescue recovery tasks can be fully realized! And another advanced domestic helicopter straight-20 although smaller than the Mi 17, but its speed, stability, landing and take-off performance is excellent, and the overall performance is much more advanced than the Mi 17 series, used for aerospace search and rescue recovery is an excellent choice!
With the increasing number, density and variety of China's aerospace launch missions, it will be possible in the future to change the current practice of temporarily deploying helicopters from the army, and to set up a helicopter aviation unit specializing in supporting aerospace missions, and to extend the mission from aerospace search and rescue recovery to the entire aerospace activity, including the early preparatory stage. Looking forward to the day, in the national pride of China's aviation mission site, can see the figure of China's domestic helicopters!