You’ll never walk alone
Airborne hands-on work
The team 60 employees, from pilots to service technicians to logisticians to flight assistants at Austrian specialist Wucher Helicopter ensure that the company’s 14 helicopters are always ready to be deployed. That team of 60 is joined by emergency doctors and air rescue personnel in the event of rescue flights.
The mission Performing jobs in offroad terrain. The flying helpers are deployed whenever there are no paved roads or time is a critical factor. For cable car or mountain restaurant construction projects, helicopters like the twin-engine Super Puma AS 332 C1 haul parts weighing up to 4.5 metric tons (4.9 short tons) to the alpine construction site. For tree-cutting jobs in alpine mountain ranges, an airborne circular saw with ten hard-metal saw blades, each with a diameter of 55 centimeters (22 inches), are suspended from one of the helicopters. Modern technology like the 4K helicopter camera Shotover ensures razor-sharp aerial footage for film productions.
The playing field All of Europe. From coasts to the highest alpine summits. But most sling-load flight missions are in areas of up to just above 3,000 meters (9,850 feet). In the winter months, the company additionally operates three bases around the Ski Arlberg ski resort, each with one of its three “Gallus” rescue helicopters.
The benefit In the 007 blockbuster “Spectre,” Daniel Craig in an aircraft pursues several villains down the Ötztal Glacier Road. That and all other spectacular aerial footage in Austria was shot by the company based in Vorarlberg. Skiers and mountaineers on the other hand are happy about fast admission to a hospital after an accident. The “Gallus 1” rescue helicopter alone takes off from Zürs for some 350 missions per year.
The ghost particle hunters
The team 350 physicists, computer specialists, and engineers from more than 50 institutions in 14 countries.
The mission Tracking down neutrinos, which is no mean feat and for a long time was even deemed to be impossible. Although neutrinos, besides light particles (photons), are the most common elementary particles in the universe, they’re practically impossible to catch because they’re nearly massless and electrically neutral. Per second, around a billion of them at nearly the speed of light hit every square centimeter of area on Earth, including our bodies, and just fly right through. We don’t see or feel any of that, which is why neutrinos are also called ghost particles.
The playing field All over the world researchers involved in the project are working on analyzing the data gathered by the world’s largest neutrino detector called IceCube. In addition, the scientists keep developing the project and the system. The heart of IceCube is located in the Antarctic ice crust at the geographic South Pole. Its 5,160 sensor balls about the size of medicine balls were immersed in the ice at depths between 1,450 and 2,450 meters (4,750 and (8,040 feet). That was a laborious job because the drilling process took an average of 48 hours per hole. Up to 48 people locally supported the IceCube assembly project across seven Antarctic summers (November 1 to February 15). Two people on the ground must be enough to operate the site during Antarctic winters when the Sun never rises and temperatures drop below –70 degrees centigrade (–94 °F). Currently, work is in progress on IceCube-Gen2, whose measuring field is supposed to grow from one to eight cubic kilometers (0.24 to 1.9 cubic miles). Completion is targeted for 2032.
The benefit With numerous crosslinks to various areas of physics, cosmology, and astronomy, neutrinos play a central role in answering unsolved questions. IceCube opens up new opportunities to explore the secrets of our universe. The researchers agree that the insights gained in the process are meant to enrich our knowledge in myriad ways.
Joint venture in the OR
The team A minimum of eight physicians and nurses are involved in performing surgery in the OR: two surgeons, one anesthesiologist and one each circulator, one surgical, and one anesthesiologist nurse. Increasingly often, they’re joined by an OR robot. More than 5,000 Da Vinci OR robots from market leader Intuitive alone support human OR teams worldwide.
The mission Performance of ultra-precise surgery. The 2.44-meter-tall (8-foot-tall) four-armed Da Vinci costs two million euros and weighs one metric ton (1.1 short tons). The machine can perform the most delicate incisions, position drill channels for screws with millimeter accuracy, and better access difficult places than a surgeon can by working with their hands. The computerized colleague does not act alone but is operated by specially trained surgeons sitting at a console away from the operating table, viewing the surgical field on a large screen thanks to three-dimensional cameras, and controlling the robot’s arms for each individual step of the procedure.
The playing field OR robots are used in urology, intestinal surgery, gynecology, and orthopedic surgery, etc.
The benefit Patients profit from robots due to smaller incisions, better wound healing, shorter anesthesia, and therefore typically faster release from a hospital.
Rapid response team
The team For 60 years, Schaeffler at its Schweinfurt site has had a full-time factory fire department that’s ready to be deployed 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Currently, 33 full-time colleagues are employed there. Some 30 part-time fire fighters support them as needed.
The mission Fire-fighting and on-site technical assistance – within five minutes after receipt of an alert. The fire department’s responsibilities include inspections and maintenance of fire protection equipment and fire extinguishing systems as well as safety training sessions.
The playing field The factory fire department ensures safety not only on Schaeffler’s premises. For larger missions, Schaeffler’s forces support other fire departments in the vicinity. The fire fighters regularly practice together to ensure smooth teamwork.
The benefit Not only the factory fire department in Schweinfurt helps with fire-fighting missions outside Schaeffler’s premises as needed but so does the factory fire department in Herzogenaurach. There, 53 part-time fire fighters, including six women, dedicate themselves to fire protection and other safety matters. Seven of them are trained high-angle rescuers. They were requested, for instance, to be deployed to the Berchtesgadener Land in 2019 in response to a disaster alert following massive snowfalls.
Wildlife spies
The team For his spectacular animal documentaries, Briton John Downer works together with a 20-member crew of camerapeople, biologists, and zoologists. Other scientists, robotics experts, and modelmakers join the team as needed.
The mission To get as close as possible to cautious gorillas, wild lions, and brooding penguins for shooting animal footage, John Downer’s team demonstrates creativity and ingenuity: The cameras are hidden in true-to-life animal mockups ranging from humming birds weighing 100 grams (2.5 ounces) to three-meter-long (9-foot-long) whale calves with controllable robotic spinal columns and five cameras in the eyes, the head, and the fin. The most sophisticated espionage creature in the camera zoo now consisting of 50 animal mockups is an octopus that can move around with robotic arms. Mounted on its back is a flexible LCD screen enabling the spy to communicate with real-world octopuses by copying their fascinating patterns.
The playing field The shoots of the teams consisting of up to five members last between three weeks and several months, often in total seclusion, with up to 1,000 hours of raw footage produced. In addition to the animal spies, conventional camerapeople are deployed, filming the interactions between the wildlife and the spying cameras at distances of 15 to 500 meters (50 to 1,640 feet). Wild animals are usually curious, get very close to their filming conspecifics, and interact with them.
The benefit In addition to many film awards for series such as “Spy in the Wild” or “Earthflight,” the animals themselves prove how well John Downer’s team manages to advance into their habitats: when a camera monkey baby dropped lifelessly onto a rock a family of langurs mourned their supposed conspecific, and made for some touching footage.
Wave riders
The team On board is an eight-member sailing crew. All of them equipped with helmets, life vests, emergency knives, and breathing equipment. During the preparatory stage, they’re assisted by a more than 100-member on-shore crew of ship designers, engineers, sailmakers, and even meteorologists. During the regattas, on-shore assistance is not available.
The mission Winning the world’s oldest sports trophy. Currently, in preliminary competitions starting on August 29, five teams from France, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States are preparing to determine who’s going to challenge title defender New Zealand. The grand finale of the 37th America’s Cup starts on October 12. Because New Zealand renounced its right to hold the event Barcelona will be the venue of the races for the first time in the 173-year history of the America’s Cup.
The playing field The 75-foot (23-meter) single-hull boats of the current AC75 class are high tech all the way. Experts estimate the total costs of an America’s Cup mission to be in the range of 100 million U.S. dollars. The hull optimized in a flow channel and the 26.5-meter (87-foot) mast are made of carbon. In ready-to-race condition, the yachts weigh only 7.6 metric tons (8.4 short tons). Instead of a keel the boats have a foil on each side. They can be hydraulically adjusted and lift the hull out of the water when there’s just a slight breeze (wind speed of about 6.5 knots). The wave riders achieve a top speed far above 40 knots (46 mph).
The benefit So-called grinders used to trim the 145-square-meter (1,560-square-foot) main sail. Weighing 120 kilograms (260 pounds), these men with arms as thick as thighs would whirl around the cranks to keep the high-tech foils optimally in the wind. The manual cranks have since been replaced by pedals, so the grinders have become cyclors. The pedalers push wattages in the range of pros at the Tour de France.
Metal heroes
The team About 120 stage technicians, industrial climbers, scaffolders, and craftspeople.
The mission Setting up the Wacken Open Air (W:O:A), the world’s largest heavy metal-festival.
The playing field In the space of just ten days, on a 240-hectare (593-acre) field near the village of Wacken with a population of 2,000 in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, a mammoth event landscape emerges. To create it, 100 tractor-trailers deliver thousands of tons of scaffolds, lights, video and sound technology, and kilometers of cables. The festival consumes as much electric power as a small town. It takes a crane, lots of skilled and careful moves, and absence of vertigo to hang the W:O:A symbol, a 2.5-metric ton (2.8-short ton) and ten-meter-tall (33-foot-tall) metal bull’s skull, at a height of 28 meters (92 feet). To supply the nearly 100,000 festival visitors with sufficient beer, an underground about seven-kilometer-long (4.4-mile-long) beer pipeline has been laid since 2017.
The benefit Taxes from the festival contribute to Wacken being able to afford a public swimming pool. In addition, residents make good money from jobs at the festival or renting out accommodation. Nobody’s got any complaints.
Power stoppers
The team Six mechanics form the pit stop crew in the DTM. Per side, there’s a tire catcher, a wheel gun operator, plus one person for the air lance of the jack, and the lollipop person that directs the car to the tire change area and back into the race.
The mission Sending the race car back out on the track as fast as possible. The best time set in the DTM last year was 5.76 seconds. Anything above 7 seconds borders on dilly-dallying.
The playing field The proximity of the teams’ performances is a hallmark of the DTM in which Schaeffler is an official technology partner. Tenths and sometimes just hundredths of a second can decide the race. That’s why a stop that’s too slow can have serious consequences. Races are won and lost as a team.
The benefit To ensure that every move is how it should be, the pit crew intensively practices with a vehicle dummy at home. That saves an extra trip to the gym.
Under Pressure
UZH psychologist Jan Schmutz researches how teams function in extreme environments and how they can thrive in the face of adversity. His research shows that teams succeed when their members feel safe and involved at work. Read more here.
