CHOPPERS!

CHOPPERS!

Chapter 1 Those Amazing Machines A forest fire is blazing. The flames are spreading faster than a man can run. Firefighters chop down trees. They dig trenches. They race to get the fire under control. A helicopter also helps battle the blaze. It swoops down to a nearby pond. In seconds, it sucks up enough water to fill 50 bathtubs. Then it dumps the water on the fire.

The helicopter starts back to fill its tank again. Then a call comes in. Flames are surrounding some of the firefighters. Soon they will be trapped! The chopper flies right over. It hovers near the men. Its blades produce a strong wind. The wind pushes the flames back. The firefighters run to safety.

Whirlybirds, choppers, eggbeaters. Whatever you call them, helicopters are amazing machines. Airplanes must move forward to fly. But helicopters can fly forward, backward, and sideways. They can also hover--fly in one spot--as long as they have fuel. Airplanes need long runways to take off and land. Helicopters can shoot straight up into the air. They can come straight down again.

Helicopters can land in small spaces. They can land on mountains. Some can even land on water. Choppers can go places that cars and planes cannot reach. Some helicopters zoom along at up to 250 miles an hour. Some fly over three miles high. Choppers can do jobs that other machines cannot.

Scientists who study volcanoes use helicopters all the time. How else could they safely watch an erupting crater and see its lava up close?