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Helicopter Lands top Mount Everest

Posted by Hemos on from the new-methods-of-flying dept.

FlyByPC writes "The Eurcopter team has succeeded in landing a helicopter on Everest and returning safely to base, setting another ultimate aviation milestone -- for highest-altitude takeoff and landing. Interesting pictures of Lukla airfield, as well -- essentially a runway carved out of a mountainside."

1 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Two words are coming to mind.. by kyle90 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, because it's clearly so easy to land a helicopter on top of Everest... even ignoring the challenge of performing a landing in such extreme conditions, it's impressive that they were able to design a helicopter that could function perfectly up where the air is so thin. Quite an achievement. I know there will be those who say this "cheapens" the experience of climbing the mountain, but I hope that maybe now we could use helis to clean up Everest; get rid of all those oxy tanks, dead bodies, etc.

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    Real_men_don't_need_spacebars.