| MUMBAI:
National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) has announced that the four-part
series Helicopter Wars would be their co-production with UK-based Windfall
Films. The
series, which will premiere on National Geographic Channel in July, recounts the
extraordinary personal bravery and dangers of four military missions where helicopter
crews risked their own lives to aid others.
In
each one-hour episode, crew members provide detailed testimony, revealing their
fears and anxieties as their skills are tested to the limit. From two pilots who
flew an unarmed helicopter to rescue more than 100 men from a battlefield in Vietnam
to a US Air Force Reserve crew made up of civilian volunteers who must rush to
save a US Navy Seal hiding from a Taliban manhunt, the episodes cover heroic efforts
in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Falklands Wars. Computer-generated
images illustrate how the helicopters operated in intense environmental conditions
and executed complex flight patterns while demonstrations detail the complications
pilots faced in the skies. NGCI
executive VP content Sydney Suissa says, “Helicopter Wars retraces
four thrilling rescue missions only made possible by a machine that has significantly
changed the face of modern warfare. The series places viewers inside a warzone
cockpit to illustrate the insurmountable odds each crew faced while also documenting
the rapid-fire leaps in technology that have brought forth the agile and highly
sophisticated helicopters employed today”. Windfall
Films chairman David Dugan says, "This series tells the heroic stories of
the most daring helicopter missions ever flown. These pilots share a common trait:
they have all flown their machines to the absolute limit and risked their lives
to save others".
Windfall
Films produces science and technology programmes in the UK.
Recent highlights include My Brilliant Brain for Five
and NGCI which won the Banff Rocky for Best Science Programme
2008, The Ghosts of the Mary Rose: Revealed; Big,
Bigger, Biggest; Monster Moves for Five; Absolute Zero
for BBC 4 and DNA for Channel Four and PBS.
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