Fulton Recovery System
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Military personnel recovery system.
Originally devised in the 1940s as a recovery system for civilian postal items in the United States. Loads are lifted from the ground using a balloon and can be recovered without landing the aircraft. During the Korean War, a lower branch of the CIA, the Joint Advisory Commission, Korea (JACK), modified this system and used it to recover agents from North Korea and Mainland China. In the system used during the Virtuous Mission, a coffin-sized caster was first dropped from a Combat Talon. Snake inflated the balloon packed inside with helium gas and attached himself to the balloon using a cable and suit harness worn on his person. When the balloon rose up, the Combat Talon unfolded a 20-foot long yoke and, with an approach speed of 125 miles per hour, seized the cable below the balloon and pulled Snake up into the aircraft using a winch.
Directly before the small nuclear warhead worked out by Colonel Volgin detonates, just for an instant one can see the parachute on the caster dropped by the Combat Talon opening and dropping to the ground.