The World Is Not Enough Gadgets

Aerial Tree Strimmer

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It’s a non-stop gadget-fest, as the next scene of The World Is Not Enough races us to Azerbaijan, where Bond drives his BMW through the oil fields, while flanked by a helicopter with a five bladed circular saw contraption attached beneath it.
The saws rotate to strim the trees and branches to avoid their interference with powers lines and other oil field obstacles.
Visually, it’s a really good inference tool for the viewer – 007 must be heading for danger, look at those whacking saws.
The Helicopter used by King Construction is a Eurocopter 355 Twinstar G-BPRJ. The Chopper is later used to cut up a corrugated building, some pipes and other assorted metal obstructions.
This activity is undertaken in commercial logging, but it requires a highly skilled crew to undertake the job. If you consider that aside from controlling the helicopter the pilot has what is effectively a big pendulum with rapidly moving blades attached to you have to wonder what happens if there is some sort of jam, or extra thick branch and the pilot has to pull back quickly. 
The pilot will not want to develop too much forward speed just in case the pendulum is forced to swing upwards, yet if there is not sufficient forward motion and enough forward speed, the engine could stutter.
And then in an area like this particular Azerbaijani oil field, there are power lines all over the place. Certainly not a job for the faint-hearted.
A great example of a DIY tree trimmer that has been put into production can be read about in this newspaper article: www.stltoday.com
American company Pfeiffer Industries have designed and manufactured a chain timing belt for aerial tree trimmer helicopter attachment purposes
Photo: The World Is Not Enough 1999 Danjaq, LLC, & United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved