PowerQuick personal lifting device allows people to quickly scale buildings
posted August 25th 2005 5:30AM
PowerQuick sounds more like an energy bar of some sort, but it's a device that's been developed for the U.S. military to help soldiers scale buildings quickly. the lifting device can raise or lower a 145kg load at one meter per second. The idea is to throw a rope with a grappling hook to the building top, then use the PowerQuick harness-like device as an assistant to haul oneself up. The device is battery-powered, and one charge will take you about 250 meters, which is equivalent to about five times the height of the Statue of Liberty. the military's version runs on solid fuel, but the battery-powered PowerQuick will be sold to civilians, with potential applications in construction, logging, window washing, rescue work, and, um… fun!
[Thanks, Gary and Jason]
For those who doubt the value of the US miliatary...
uhm, 145kg is 320 pounds(give or take a pound). the average well-build police/swat personell is say 250 pounds plus 60 pounds of equipment (vest, helmet, rifle, sidearm, ammo, etc.) plus heavy duty boots and clothing not included in equipment is another 5-15 pounds. so at that point you have maxed out this poor little device's weight rating and if you've ever put a 250 pound person on a scooter or something similar thats got a max weight of 250 pounds, then you'll know that the poor thing just kinda sputters along lazily and does not perform like its supposed to.
nonetheless, i cant say that i'm not going to buy me one of these batman flying devices as long as its under $300. but in all reality its more for construction and window cleaning than for a swat-type rapid entry. wonder if you could use 2 of these for a spider-man type swing?? hah.
What if it runs out of battery half way up/down?
Batman eat your heart out
Err, can anyone actually throw a grappling hook 250m into the air and reassuringly attach it to the top of the building?
Thought not!
#3, replace the batteries, or come back down manually. Don't think they're stupid enough to make you fall over when battery runs out, aka Segway.
A grappling hook that can shoot 250 meters high, sign me up. Though I hope it comes with rubber underwear because I might crap my pants hanging off the side of a building at 250 meters.
All I can think of is how badly this device was needed on 9/11.
O.. Another arsenal added to my stalker tool belt.... She can run and go to work and still can't hide.... sweet
If they tell us about the 320 lb. version, then they have a much stronger one. Now where's my flying car?
Wow, a technology advertised as being for search and rescue work that....could potentially actually be really useful for search and rescue work.
Note that in terms of fire trucks, even a fairly spectacular tower ladder of the "other guy driving it from the little booth in the back" sort maxes out at 15 stories, and provides at that height only one ladder. So this is a decent way to get firefighters / water / crap *into* a building at a certain height, but if the problem is higher than that, it's all darkened stairwells and standpipes from there on up. Blowing past a lot of that on the outside could be a big help...or even just zipping on up to an attempted suicide or crane entrapment or other "unpredictables", or letting four or five of your ladder crew get up to height without effing around trying to deploy that thing in a two-lane street to get two of them up there, momentarily exhausted and sucking down their bottle the whole time...potentially very exciting.
To: #2 - I would imagine SWAT wouldn't try to actually make their assault from the ropes going UP. They'd be most vulnerable as they actually CLIMBED UP the last bit on the balcony or through whatever window. I would guess SWAT would be more likely to use something like this to land on the floor *above* the perps or at least at a different part of the same floor, stage up, get their gear all sorted out, perhaps secure the area/exit path and then proceed with a more conventional assult. On foot if from the same floor, or if the window/balcony is the ONLY option, dropping down from the floor above (swinging in is much faster than climbing in). They may ascend at a rather languid pace, but they will bypass any nasty surprises waiting for them in the lower floors and also not have to alert the perps to what they're doing with something as obvious as a helicoptor.
Not being a cop/swat member or being trained in urban assault that's just a guess. I'd love to hear from any current/former SWAT members or other tactical response units if any are reading this...
To: #3 - #6 is right. It's probably ratcheted and/or equipt with a clutch mechanism so that if the batteries die it just locks up...leaving you to decide if you want to go up or down manualy under your own power.
To: #5 - With a very light grappling hook (titanium ?) a pretty basic 'grenade rifle' using a blank gun power cartridge could easily shoot a grappling hook 250' up.
Your point is well taken though. If you can THROW a hook that high you are one BAD MUTHA' and probably don't need any wimpy little machine to help you climb up :)
Check your math there #12.
250m = 820.2099738 feet
Someday I hope to be able to travel south and see water freezing at zero, measurements not requiring __/16ths to be appended (yay decimals!), and generally being able to easily convert denominations. Inch > Foot > Yard > Mile... no consistent conversion among them.
It sounds like it could be pretty cool to play around with, but the burning question is: does it sync with iTunes?
Is it only me that thinks this can be a boon for thieves?
Steve, most tools can be a boon for thieves. What's your point? Should people stop inventing tools?
Gleb: 250lbs for the average swat personnel is overboard. Try 175-215 lbs... 250lbs is just plain fat.
hmmmm... a climbing tool...that'll stop those pesky terrorists...however, what self-respecting quasi-super-hero is gonna throw the grappling hook? install a bazooka like grapple launcher and make it the size of a glock...and yes #3 lose the battery.
I would hate to be on one of those when the battery runs out!
I would hate to be on one of those when the battery runs out!
#13 - I don't think my math is the problem, it's my reading. I actually thought figure was in feet (I'll admit I sort of glossed over the statue of liberty part...). In which case a grenade rifle may not do the job after all. I would have to change my recommendation to d-day style rockets to carry the ropes up instead as were used by the BAR toting so called 'spider monkeys' of WWII.
That of course is if you simply want to ride it till the battery dies. Just cause it can gothat far in one trip doesn't mean it has to...
Thanks for catching the slip!
lso, only the civilian version is battery powered. The milspec one is powered by "solid fuel" - apparently through a kickass little - get ready for this - jet turbine. Google "quoin powerquick ". or hit quointech.com for an actual picture of this thing (thanks for nothin', engadget...)10 hp for a tiny burst, apparently originally developed ostensibly to run guidance gyros....