Straight Up! Helicopters in Action
Now Showing in IMAX

Get your Rotors running!
Fly along with skilled helicopter crews as they carry out sea and mountain rescues, apprehend drug smugglers, repair high voltage lines, save endangered animals, deliver humanitarian aid, get caught in a raging avalanche and undertake a reconnaissance mission.
On a typical day, the U.S. Customs Service can have more than 107 narcotic seizures yielding anaverage of 5,000 pounds of narcotics. The U.S. Customs Service relies heavily on helicopters to complete their operations. Fly alongside “cigarette boats” as smugglers are apprehended with the help of the U.S. Customs’ Black Hawk pilots. This heart-pounding sequence took five days off the coast of Miami to shoot and features one of only two U.S. Customs female pilots qualified to fly Black Hawks.

From Miami, travel to South Africa and hold your breath as a veterinarian tranquilizes a black rhino from a helicopter flying 10 feet above ground. See how helicopters aid veterinarians in the care and protection of the endangered black rhino and work to prevent poaching of these magnificent creatures. Then head out to the open sea off the coast of North Carolina and witness a dramatic rescue as U.S. Coast Guard pilots demonstrate their lifesaving skills through a nighttime rescue reenactment. The U.S. Coast Guard is involved in all types of missions from homeland security to search and rescue, and annually saves more than 4,000 lives, assists more than 65,000 people in distress, saves more than $1.3 billion in property and interdicts approximately $4 billion in illegal drugs. Nothing can top the next electrifying sequence where you’ll join a high-wire act as Pennsylvania linemen brave 500,000-volt power lines more than 100 feet off the ground. Discover the many precautions linemen and helicopter pilots must take to ensure their safety in this dangerous line of work.

Lastly, discover what the future holds for vertical flight. See what researchers are doing to introduce new “quiet technology” to allow helicopters to become “better neighbors.” Get a sneak-peak at new experimental helicopter designs like NASA’s Bell XV-15 Tilt-rotor that combines the hovering ability of the helicopter with the speed of a fixed-wing aircraft and explore what other stealth technology lies ahead for these amazing vertical flying machines!


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