On the other hand, Skyhook is unquestionably preferable in emergency situations, where time is of the essence - such as fighting a high-rise/skyscraper fire (Skyhook could have saved lives, for example, in a recent incident at the Cook County building, in Chicago). Although Skyhook runs at higher cost than helicopters, there is no danger from any "rotor strikes", so it can work into closer quarters. Skyhook could be used for carrying firefighters and their equipment, or for lofting higher payloads - perhaps hoisting time-valued emergency payloads of tanked water, or fire-retardant chemicals.
There are several benefits of Skyhook, when compared to helicopters: Skyhook uses jet engines, so it is more powerful, faster, and more maneuverable. Skyhook is a sort of brute-force solution to a wide-range of lifting problems. Skyhook accomplishes vertical moves much more quickly than they can be accomplished by a helicopter. It has a much faster rate of climb, and rate of descent, and superior performance in applications requiring vertical takeoff and landing. In fact, Skyhook applications may be similar to those anticipated for the V-22 "Osprey" tilt-wing aircraft, but Skyhook represents a flying vehicle of much less critical design category.
Though the V-22 approach offers many similarities to helicopter technologies, Skyhook presents major differences. Skyhook is unmanned, and remotely-piloted, with remote-piloting enabled by onboard television cameras. As a remotely-piloted vehicle, it may be operated from a distant direct-view vantage point, with direct views augmented by television monitors to provide close-up views, as needed. In any operations within congested areas, the operator requires direct observation with a wide-angle view from some distant viewing point, probably on an elevated height, such as a tall building, or a tower, but could also be augmented by "co-piloting" arrangement, with a second operator given a continuously varying viewpoint from a mobile platform, such as a helicopter, or a blimp.
Since Skyhook is dedicated to unmanned operations, it has little need for weight-adding systems for crew safety, so more of its lifting capability can be dedicated to lofting its payload. And, since skyhook does not need to be large enough to support the weight of a pilot, its minimum size can be smaller than "ultra-light", if need be. In fact, at minimum, a small-scale skyhook could be barely large enough to carry camera/reconnaissance equipment, for police patrol and surveillance. Because it is unmanned, Skyhook may be used in various applications where there could be any sort of question concerning pilot/operator safety, for applications carried out under conditions of extreme pressures, temperatures, or altitudes (i.e., antenna-site maintenance in Arctic regions, or on mountain peaks, or mountain search-and-rescue).
There may be questions about Skyhook's certifiability for operations over populated areas, so its over-land operations may have to be legally-restricted. Safety and/or stability considerations may require Skyhooks configured with 4, 5, or 6 engines, and Skyhook's full-time use may be limited to unpopulated, remote locations (Alaska). Otherwise, generally speaking, Skyhook must be restricted in its shore-based applications. Skyhook is best used for applications where the majority of its flight operations are conducted over large bodies of water, where it presents no danger to life and limited damage to property if a system failure should cause a drop into the water. As an unmanned crane, then, Skyhook is best utilized in construction jobs in venues adjoining large bodies of water, where Skyhook could perform its altitude run-ups "feet wet" (typically, a skyhook would pick up its load and run-up to 800 feet or more, while still over water). Skyhook may be useful in constructing high-rise buildings in cities along the seacoasts, or on large lakes, or even wide rivers. Skyhook may be used in cities like New York, Chicago, St Louis, or New Orleans, then, but may not be of much use in land-locked cities, like Denver, or Dallas.
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