Fulton surface - to - air recovery system The Fulton surface - to - air recovery system ( STARS ) is a system used by the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) , United States Air Force and United States Navy for retrieving persons on the ground using an MC - 130E Combat Talon I aircraft . It involves using an overall - type harness and a self - inflating balloon which carries an attached lift line . An MC - 130E engages the line with its V - shaped yoke and the individual is reeled on board . Red flags on the lift line guide the pilot during daylight recoveries ; lights on the lift line are used for night recoveries . Recovery kits were designed for one and two - man retrievals . This system was developed by inventor Robert Edison Fulton , Jr . , for the 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 . The Skyhook system . Experiments began in 1950 with the CIA and Air Force . Using a weather balloon , nylon line , and 10 - to 15 - pound weights , Fulton made numerous pickup attempts as he sought to develop a reliable procedure . Successful at last , he had his son photograph the operation . Fulton then took the film to Admiral Luis de Florez , who had become the first director of technical research at the CIA . Believing that the program could best be handled by the military , de Florez put Fulton in touch with the Office of Naval Research . Thanks to de Florez ' s interest , Fulton received a development contract from ONR ' s Air Programs Division . Over the next few years , Fulton refined the air and ground equipment for the pickup system . Based at El Centro , California , he conducted numerous flights over the desert , using a Navy P2V Neptune for the pickups . He gradually increased the weight of the pickup until the line began to break . A braided nylon line with a test strength of 4 , 000 pounds ( 1800 kilograms ) solved the problem . More vexing were the difficulties that were experienced with the locking device , or sky anchor , that secured the line to the aircraft . Fulton eventually resolved this problem , which he considered the most demanding part of the entire developmental process . By 1958 , the Fulton aerial retrieval system , or Skyhook , had taken its final shape . A package that easily could be dropped from an aircraft contained the necessary ground equipment for a pickup . It featured a harness , for cargo or person , that was attached to a 500 - foot ( 150 m ) , high - strength , braided nylon line . A portable helium bottle inflated a dirigible - shaped balloon , raising the line to its full height . The pickup aircraft sported two tubular steel " horns " protruding from its nose , 30 feet long and spread at a 70° angle . The aircraft would fly into the line , aiming at a bright mylar marker placed at the 425 - foot ( 130 m ) level . As the line was caught between the forks on the nose of the aircraft , the balloon was released and at the same time the spring - loaded trigger mechanism ( sky anchor ) secured the line to the aircraft . As the line streamed under the fuselage , it was snared by the pickup crew , using a J - hook . It was then attached to a powered winch and pulled on board . The aircraft also had cables strung from the nose to the wingtips to keep the balloon line away from the propellers , in case the catch was unsuccessful . Fulton first used instrumented dummies as he prepared for a live pickup . He next used a pig , as pigs have nervous systems close to humans . Lifted off the ground , the pig began to spin as it flew through the air at 125 mph ( 200 km / h ) . It arrived on board uninjured but in a disoriented state . Once it recovered , it attacked the crew . Later the US Navy tested the Fulton system fitted to modified S - 2 Tracker carrier - based antisubmarine patrol aircraft for use in rescuing downed pilots . It is unknown whether a Fulton equipped S - 2 was ever used on a combat mission . First human pickups . The CIA had secretly trained Special Activities Division paramilitary officers to use a predecessor system for human pickups as early as 1952 . The first human recovery mission authorized for operational use of this " all American system " took place in Manchuria on 29 November 1952 . CIA C - 47 pilots Norman Schwartz and Robert Snoddy were trained in the aerial pickup technique towards the end of 1952 . CIA paramilitary officers John T . Downey and Richard G . Fecteau , themselves hurriedly trained in the procedure during the week of 24 November , were to recover a courier who was in contact with anti - communist sympathizers in the area . The mission failed when Chinese forces downed the aircraft with small arms fire , capturing survivors Downey and Fecteau . The British allegedly also used the American system for personnel . The first human pickup using Fulton ' s STARS took place on 12 August 1958 , when Staff Sergeant Levi W . Woods of the U . S . Marine Corps was winched on board the Neptune . Because of the geometry involved , the person being picked up experienced less of a shock than during a parachute opening . After the initial contact , which was described by one individual as similar to " a kick in the pants " , the person rose vertically at a slow rate to about 100 feet , then began to streamline behind the aircraft . Extension of arms and legs prevented spinning , as the individual was winched on board . The process took about six minutes . In August 1960 , Capt . Edward A . Rodgers , commander of the Naval Air Development Unit , flew a Skyhook - equipped P2V to Point Barrow , Alaska , to conduct pickup tests under the direction of Dr . Max Brewer , head of the Navy ' s Arctic Research Laboratory . With Fulton on board to monitor the equipment , the Neptune picked up mail from Floating Ice Island T - 3 , also known as Fletcher ' s Ice Island , retrieved artifacts , including mastodon tusks , from an archaeological party on the tundra , and secured geological samples from Peters Lake Camp . The high point of the trials came when the P2V dropped a rescue package near the icebreaker . Retrieved by a ship ' s boat , the package was brought on deck , the balloon inflated , and the pickup accomplished . Operation Coldfeet . The first operational use of Skyhook was Operation Coldfeet , an examination of an abandoned Soviet drift station . Two agents parachuted to station NP 8 in May 1962 . After 72 hours at the site , a pick - up was made of the Soviet equipment that had been gathered and of both men . The mission yielded information on the Soviet Union ’ s Arctic research activities , including evidence of advanced research on acoustical systems to detect under - ice U . S . submarines and efforts to develop Arctic anti - submarine warfare techniques . Later use . The Fulton system was used from 1965 to 1996 on several variants of the C - 130 Hercules including the MC - 130s and HC - 130s . Despite the apparent high - risk nature of the system , only one fatal accident occurred in 17 years of use ( in 1982 ) . The increased availability of long - range helicopter s such as MH - 53 Pave Low , HH - 60 Pave Hawk and MH - 47 Chinook , and the MV - 22 Osprey and CV - 22 Osprey tilt - rotor aircraft all with aerial refueling capability , caused this system to be used less often . In September 1996 , the Air Force Special Operations Command ceased maintaining the capability to deploy this system . In popular culture . In 1965 , the CIA - operated Fulton - equipped B - 17 Flying Fortress ( former AAF Ser . No . 44 - 85531 ) , registered as N809Z , was featured at the ending of the James Bond movie " Thunderball " . On the television show " The Unit " , Sergeant Major Jonas Blaine ( portrayed by Dennis Haysbert ) uses the Skyhook for his extraction at the end of a mission . He carried a duffel bag with an oxygen tank , mask , rope , harness and a balloon in the shape of a rocket with a red tip . Another HC - 130 - based version of the system was also used in the 1968 John Wayne movie " The Green Berets " . The recovery system was used in the video game " " , It is briefly seen on the fictional Combat Talon aircraft but never actually seen in use . In the PSP game " " , the STARS is a core gameplay mechanic . Operatives and unconscious enemy soldiers are recovered with the Fulton Recovery System , though in a slightly different fashion . In the game , the inflatable helium balloon lifts the soldier into the air and is then carried out of sight by a helicopter , rather than an MC - 130E . In the PC game " " field operative David Jones is picked up to C - 130 in the end of one mission . In the film " The Dark Knight " , Batman successfully uses the Skyhook system to pick himself up from the IFC 1 in Hong Kong . The system used included an inflated balloon with an internally lit flashing light that was launched from inside the skyscraper through a broken window . In the television series " Alias " , spy Sydney Bristow is picked up using the system in season 1 , episode 19 , " Snowman " . In the video game " Dead Rising 2 " , Sullivan attempts to use the Skyhook system to escape from Fortune City . However , after his belt is handcuffed to the roof , he is torn in half by the force of the pickup . In the video game " " the system is used by an AC - 130 to retrieve a stranded infantry man . In the video game " " the system is used in the Green Bridge map to aid in the escape of a prisoner . In the book " novel " the system is used to recover The Golden Buddha and Juan Cabrillo from a ship ' s deck . In the 5th OVA of " Crying Freeman " , " Abduction of Chinatown , " the main character uses this system to infiltrate rival organization . In the video game " " ( 2013 ) a variation of the system is used by Sam Fisher to rapidly be airlifted to safety by an allied helicopter . This happens twice in the game once by himself and the second time with his partner Briggs attached to him with an extra meter and a half of rope to the second harness . No balloons are used , instead the chopper snags the rope that has been fired into a solid surface . The basis for the Fulton system actually takes ideas from railroad train pickup systems for mail bags . This system was expanded and used by All American Aviation to pick up mail from small airfields without the cargo plane having to land , thus saving time and money . All American Aviation later became Alleghany Airlines , later becoming USAIR , then USAIRWAYS and finally merging with American Airlines . The system used for the mailbags was then used on human beings before being handed over to the intelligence agencies .