If you get stranded up on Mount Everest, you won't have to endure the cold for long - you'll likely be dead within two days. Problem is, first-aid-trained Sherpas, the state-of-the-art rescue method in the Himalayas, could take up to five days to reach you. Now 64-year- old New Zealander Trevor Rogers wants to save more adventurers from an icy demise. His firm, TGR Helicorp, is working on an unmanned aircraft called the Alpine Wasp that will whisk climbers to safety. Spurred by his deep ties to Nepal (he led bus tours there in the '60s and as a child was friends with Everest pioneer Edmund Hillary), Rogers is founding a nonprofit rescue center and base for the Wasp, which should begin flying missions in 2008. TGR has also designed a transponder that climbers can use to summon the drone if something goes very, very wrong - if they can still move a finger to push the button.
- Joe Brown
1. Engine The Wasp has a four-cylinder, two-stroke diesel that's intercooled, turbo charged, and supercharged, which means the engine can still breathe plenty of oxygen all the way up to 31,000 feet above sea level, where the high- altitude air gets very thin.
2. Cameras A Plexi-glas sphere on the chopper's nose houses 10 cameras - two infrared and eight visible spectrum. They let the operator, who controls the craft remotely from a cozy pod 35 miles away, spot obstacles - and unfortunate climbers - in any weather.
3. Probe A retractable 27-foot-long probe fitted with a camera and speaker delivers the Kevlar rescue harness. The camera helps the operator get close to its target, while the speaker lets him instruct the mountaineer to put the harness on.
4. Interior The Wasp's pilot isn't on board, so there's plenty of room for a passenger - and tanks of life-saving oxygen. After the operator retracts the harness to pull the rescued climber aboard, the heated compartment fills with oxygen and the copter heads back to base.
Illustration: Tomer Hanuka
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