UKC

Pictures from Eurocopter of helicopter landing on Everest summit!

The pictures can be viewed on www.eurocopter.com/everest

In reply to 'Hilda':

Try this link.. http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/bscap004.jpg

In reply to 'Hilda': pfffff its not even touching the summit!

Although its still a damn fine effort

In reply to 'Hilda': Heres one of the helicopter flying by the summit.

http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/029.JPG

In reply to 'Hilda': HAHA, oh yeah that's the summit of Everest...NOT.

In reply to 'Hilda': Why is the sky a slightly different colour in the oval around the helicopter?

In reply to DaveN:
Well spotted.

In reply to Nj:

now ive never been to everest, but ive seen a lot of pictures and ive never seen one of the everest summit from that angle!

I dont think thats everest in the picture...

In reply to DaveN:

Yeah it is as well!! haha

In reply to Sharket:

photoshop!

In reply to 'Hilda': apparently they are releasing a video on their website tomorrow morning at 11am paris time.

http://www.eurocopter.com/everest

In reply to 'Hilda':
This looks a bit dodgy too! Definitely a lighter shade of blue around the chopper!

http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/101.JPG

In reply to steve barnbrook:
True but if you could clone the front of the chopper against the rock that well, then you wouldn't make such a basic mistake as that

In reply to Graham T:

the shading is probably related to the jpeg compression. Its a very even colour with a step change in the levels which will be distorted by taking out the low order bits in the compression algorithm. Anyways, what do the grooves in the rotor do? Theres obviously something clever in this picture thats forcing the air out to the tip or something.
http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/022.JPG

p

In reply to Graham T: Maybe its air turbulance showing against the blue background - a bit like the plane 'trials' you can see on a clear day.

I'm not sure that a company as well known (and as rich as Eurocopter) would try to pull the wool over peoples eyes like this?

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:
Dunno, i didn't think they would bother to fake it personally

In reply to DaveN:

Dear Dave

I would say that photo was taken with a fisheye lens.

Norrie

In reply to 'Hilda':
I thought choppers could only fly to 15,000 ft as the air is too thin for lift,even at 15 it cannot land and take off!

In reply to man_in_the_alps:

Thats kinda the point of amking a fuss about landing on everest
p

In reply to man_in_the_alps:

Dear man

Maybe that is why you don't work for Eurocopter or any other forward thinking organisation.

Norrie

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:


That looks more like the tail fin than a rotor.

In reply to 'Hilda': This is the only picture of teh whole lot with Everest in,
http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/bscap000.jpg

In reply to Graham T:
Take it from me - the shot is a fake - and a pretty poor one too!

Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:



The video doesn't look very fake though.

In reply to Chris Craggs:

The video evidence is here:
http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/

In reply to Tom, UKC News Editor:

its fake, that mountain doesnt exist.

Im not convinced its fake considering its in huge letters on their homepage!

This is their statement on it..

World Première: A Eurocopter single-engine serial Ecureuil/AStar AS350 B3 lands on the TOP of the world.

On May 14th, 2005 at 7h08 (local time), a serial Ecureuil/AStar AS 350 B3 piloted by the EUROCOPTER X-test pilot Didier Delsalle, landed at 8,850 meters (29,035ft) on the top of the Mount Everest (Kingdom of Nepal).

Read the full report here:

http://www.eurocopter.com/publications/FO/scripts/newsFO_complet.php?lang=E...

Its easy to presume something is faked these days, but there is no way you would be able to tell if it was done by a professional, and they wouldnt have just got some goon to knock this up in photoshop!

HAVE SOME FAITH PEOPLE!

In reply to loco_ola:
I don't think anybody's saying that they didn't land the chopper on top of Everest!

I'm 99% certain that the photo of the chopper and the summit (not Everest) is faked though. The distortion of the thumbnail image is a dead give-away. God knows why they'd bother though?

In reply to Mr Pink 2:
That's this photo btw: http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/029.JPG

There is no way you can accurately judge the authenticity of a <100kb highly compessed jpg image online! The very nature of compression for jpgs makes it impossible.

I deleted my post before by mistake..

ALSO FYI Eurocopter is owned by European Aeronautic, Defense and Space Company and are huge & there is no way their sharholders would stand for such a false claim!

OK that image is a bit bigger than 100kb but not exactly a photograph in the hand. The same effect could be produced without the chopper being anywhere near the top. Its all about perpective. That "cloud" behind the chopper does look a bit dodge

In reply to loco_ola:
I don't mean their claim is fake, just a couple of their PR shots!

Chris

In reply to loco_ola:
"OK that image is a bit bigger than 100kb"

844kb bigger infact

It's just a marketing image, in the same league as the car add in Sumnmit magazine a while ago with the car perched at a jaunty angle on top of a pinnacle.

In reply to loco_ola:
"There is no way you can accurately judge the authenticity of a <100kb highly compessed jpg image online! The very nature of compression for jpgs makes it impossible."

No it dosn't - the compression shows up any alteration of the image - typically you get a sort of halo effect (I don't know why.) If you have a look through the thumbnails on the UKC gallery you can clearly see this on quite a lot of the photos, normally just because they've been sharpened (in fact some of the photos in my gallery show this quite clearly - http://www.ukclimbing.com/photos/author.html?id=2882 )

George.

In reply to Mr Pink 2:
The 'halo' round the helicopter is just different coloured sky copied and pasted from another image though. Sharpening halos closely follow the edge of the object where the contrast changes - that's how it works.

Chris

In reply to loco_ola:

Come off it. It's as fake as that moon landing stunt NASA tried to pull off in the '60s... you'll be telling me next that Hillary walked up Everest and wasn't carried up by six sherpa's from Lukla.

Thank you very much...

Elvis

In reply to Chris Craggs:
"The 'halo' round the helicopter is just different coloured sky copied and pasted from another image though. Sharpening halos closely follow the edge of the object where the contrast changes - that's how it works. "

Aye I know that much, but you'll still get a distortion on the thumbnail from where they smudged the two images together won't you? (which is what I thought I could see on the thumbnail - now I'm not so sure.)

George.

I still maintain (as a digital graphic designer) that if they had wanted to fake it they wouldnt have made it look so fake it wouldnt have been hard! Is this crazy logic?

In reply to loco_ola:
I know - very odd. I reckon that (as somebody who isn't a digital graphic designer) I could probably make a better job of it than that. I still think the photo's a fake though.

In reply to 'Hilda':

according to the design spec of this '6 seater passenger'helicopter its maximum ceiling is c 20,000ft.

Watching the video i doubt at such an altitude it would be stable enough to pull the manouevre it does pulling away from the summit.

I dont want to doubt it, but some of the evidence seems a bit dubious to be honest.

Congrats to them if they did.

In reply to JR:

What Manouvre? He lifts of gently, puts the nose down to build up speed and makes a shallow left hand turn; he isn't doing anything wild, although, I admit, the wide angle lens, does make it look worse than it is.

Anyway, regarding your first point. I'm sure that they didn't just pull the aircraft off the production line. I expect it underwent extensive modification. I doubt it was a "passenger helicopter" when they'd finished with it.

In reply to Anonymous:

Probably



Agreed, of course, but theres no mention of any modfications anywhere, i'd be well interesteed to know how htey did it.

In reply to JR:


Me too. But then again, I bet a lot of people are, including rival helicopter manufacturers...

In reply to JR:

Extensive modification - Looks to me like they took all the seats out.

http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/009.JPG

When I took the seat out of my 1988 Lada Niva Cossack, it could easily have landed on Everest.

Why so much doubt???

Who say's they cant design, build and then make a chopper to land on everest? After all, 100 years ago no one thought you could climb it. Or for that matter go to the moon (unfortunatly i'm a believer in the conspiricy with the moon landings).

The evidence is there. I've just watched the video and I would like to say well done to them (even if they are french!).

Why, when it comes to everest, are most climbers completely narrow minded tw*ts? Is it jelousy that you will never be any more of a punter therefore will never climb the thing?
I know for a fact i'll never climb it but I don't rubish every thing to do with the mountain (1996 is a good example), whats wrong with looking at the facts presented and congratulating the team involved?

Incidently, the jpg that everyone is claiming to be fake probably is, but i get the impression that a few of the photos are and are faked to bump up the images available. It happens to us all, you get so caught up in the exictement of the situation you dont get all the photos.

In reply to DaveN:

bloomin' good point... could it be a ufo posing as a chopper.

In reply to Chris Craggs:

It isn't different coloured sky copied and pasted from another image. I agree photo-post halos closely follow the edge of the object, but the colour is almost spot on, they've picked the colour from the photo of the mountain and then painted it up to the helicopter they put in... schoolboy error.

In reply to 'Hilda':

For gods Sake people Don't anyone believe in anyone anymore!!!! makes me sick that so many of you can't wait to put people down at every opportunity!!!! Organisation or individual!!!!!

In reply to 'Hilda': Trying to download the video now - does anyone know how long it will take - I'm not on broadband, slower ISDN line?

In reply to Matt Rees:

That machine would have been like a skeleton to get up that high, there would have been only the bear essentials left in it.

In reply to Richard Smith: Just watched the video - its amazing.

Its a fantastic achievement, but did he have to waste the champagne at the end - sprayed it everywhere, but didn't drink any!

In reply to 'Hilda':

Click the link to watch the video
http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/video/MC_NET_ZICOFF.wmv

(There's also another another format on their website.)

It's odd, i'm not sure it's fake. I just did a similar fake in 2 mins and it looks much better. You'd think that if they were faking it they could do a better job, so maybe it's real?

http://www.afulton.force9.co.uk/files~2/029%20copy.jpg

In reply to Alasdair Fulton: I like your twisted logic!

In reply to Alasdair Fulton:
Why not see if you can charge them for it??

Chris

In reply to 'Hilda':
how is there even enough air up there to feed the engine?

In reply to owen - soton:
I don't know!

Here's another video link http://www.mounteverest.net/story/FrenchEverestMysteryChoppersUtopiasummit-...

the main drawback is the Alanis Morrisette background track

In reply to 'Hilda':


LOL, strange choice of background track.

In reply to owen - soton:

There's plenty of air for the engine. After all, commercial airliners fly a lot higher without their engines failing. It isn't engine performance that limits aircraft ceilings; it's lift, and helicopters are affected more than fixed wing aircraft.

Mark

In reply to DaveN:

The sky might be a different colour around the helicopter, due to air turbulance causing a change in diffraction of light in that part of the atmosphere. Therfore the colour recieved by the camer will be different.

In reply to 'Hilda': With a good computer and a bit of time you can fake those pictures, espeiically the fly by, that even i could do, (figure of speech)

In reply to 'Hilda':
OK, this is what I think. The pictures have had some manipulation by someone not very good with PS (?) or in a hurry. The question is why. The "halo" looks to me like the affect of using the dodging tool on the helicoptor to lighten it a little. Probablt to make the markings more visible. This would seem to make sense from a promotional point of view. I don't think any other manipulation has occured.
There are also dark blobs across the sky cause by dust on the CCD. Surely if you were going to spend and time on manipulation you'd remove them, either by cloning or generating a dark reference.
So my vote is - Genuine.
Regs, Nigels.

Oh to see the look on the rich American bankers face as he trudges to the summit with his six sherpas and two guides only to find a french bloke writing his name in the snow with his helicopter skids. Class
cheers
Toby

In reply to 'Hilda': Still not convinced. This is a picture of Everest (perhaps) with a helecopter in the foreground.

http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/029.JPG

Also, in the mountain, the sun is coming from the left yet the right side of the helecopter is in shadow!

I thought the Chinese placed some sort of permanent fixtuyre on top of Everest a few years back to help them measure it? Didn't see any evidence of this or anything else on the 'summit'.

I'm not convinved, the video looks fake to me too, I'm not convinced at all that the summit landed on is Everest. Clever editing and a gullible audience. Great publicity though.

It's not April is it?

In reply to JR:

That's the height that it is certified to fly at, not the maxium altitude that it is physically capabable of flying at.
Big difference!

In reply to Ian Munro:

Not that I take this seriously but who the F is Hilda?

Ex corro star?

In reply to Route Adjuster:

I'm not sure why there is such incredulity. In terms of altitude, the summit of everest is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an altitude record for helicopters. In fact, it isn't even close; the helecopter altitude record was set more than 30 years ago, at over 12 000m. It's perhaps more surprising that nobody has landed on the summit of everest before!

Mark

In reply to Anonymous:
It's perhaps more surprising that nobody has landed on the summit of everest before!

Maybe they feared all the crying landing there would start.

Now lets see them land that thing on the wings of a Airliner in 10Km height.

surest way to prove a fake is to put up a link to an identical photo of the chopper with a different background, or the pic of everest without the chopper?

In reply to Phil Lyon:

then you would have to come up with proof for those two pictures not beeing fake............

In reply to Route Adjuster:
You need to look again. From about 2.35 mins into the video you can see the top of the orange tripod that the Chinese put there just left of the centre of the picture.

Analysed with the software "colorpic"

The general sky is:
Red 92
Green 135
Blue 204
Hue 217°
Sat 55°
Light 80%

The "Halo" is:
Red 106
Green 151
Blue 219
Hue 215°
Sat 55°
Light 85%

Hope that makes things clear..........

In reply to 'Hilda':
Why walk up everest when you can fly?

Impressive, in one short flight they have put all the everest trekking businesses out of business.

In reply to Jon Greengrass:

I think they had a 30 day permit to make the attempt - I cant imagine the Nepali govenment handing out further permits as it will damage the sherpas livihoods.