The machines have a parachute permanently fixed to their frame. It can be jettisoned in an emergency, but this is not advisable. The large propellor mounted on the rear provides the forward thrust, and on the underside are skis for more conventional travel.

James Bond has to deal with several of these machines when they attack unexpectedly in the Caucasus Mountains of central Asia.

They are extremly slow moving, but are fitted with machine guns and parachute mines, and end up starting an avalanche which Bond gets caught up in.