Aerial rig
External hard-mount platform on a stunt-rated helicopter, used for sustained aerial performance work — Tom Cruise's helicopter chase in Fallout, every modern airbase boarding sequence.
Mechanism
A helicopter stunt mount is an external steel platform welded to the airframe at FAA-certified hardpoints, typically on the skid struts or fuselage side. The performer wears a redundant fall-arrest system: working harness clipped to the platform, plus a separate emergency line clipped to a different hardpoint. The platform's geometry is designed to keep the performer outside the rotor disk and outside the tail-rotor envelope at all flight regimes the production will fly. Production aviation coordinators clear the rig with the FAA and run progressively-higher-speed rehearsals — hover, low forward flight, full forward flight — before the camera-ready take.
Safety
Every stunt aviation rig is FAA Part 91 / 133 inspected and the pilot is rated for external load. Performer training includes ditching procedure (immediate water egress with the harness) and rotor-strike avoidance. Maximum airspeed for an externally-rigged performer is typically 80–100 kts depending on platform; above that the wind shear exceeds the performer's harness control. Cold-weather aerial work uses thermal layering since exposure on an external platform at 100 kts produces 3-to-4-minute hypothermic windows.
Variants
Performer descends from helicopter to a moving vehicle on a fast-rope or ratchet; rehearsed extensively at low speed before performance pace.
Helicopter holds a stationary hover above set; performer drops via fast-rope rather than the helicopter performing forward flight.
On screen
Sequences in the archive whose discipline tags overlap this technique's category. Click through for the full rigging breakdown of each set-piece.
References
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