Just wondering if their are military or emergency helicopters that hold up to 40 or 50 people at a time if not whats the highest amount of people these types of helicopters can hold
Wikipedia lists the Chinook at a capacity of 55 troops.
The Russian Mi-26 can carry a crazy 90 passengers in the densest configuration.
In this crash a Mi-26 apparently carried 5 crew and at least 135 passengers.
I think that count of 55 is based on the number of seats that are installed. It wouldn’t happen in peacetime, but in an emergency we could cram many more in if willing to just seat them on the floor. IIRC The lift capacity was as much as 30000lbs of cargo so right there is room for 150 people at 200# ea.
That 55 also includes their gear: helmets, rifles and what not. So you could fit far more than 55 baggage-free civilians in there.
I think that the number of passengers is limited by seating, not by load capacity. The CH-53 series of helicopters all carry 55 passengers as well, although their lift capacities are well in excess of the CH-47 variants out there.
Wow. Crashed in their own mine field. Now that’s a bad day.
That’s why I qualified it with the “in peacetime.”
And I (well, Wikipedia) was wrong on the count for the Chinook. According to FM55-450-2 Army Helicopter Internal Load Operations there is only seating for 33 troops.
However, in a full on, the zombies are inside the wire at Fort Zinderneuf situation, and the goal is just to get as many out as possible, all those little niceties like enough seatbelts and even seats would go by the wayside. You would use the entire 228sqft (90in x 366in) of floor space with the only limit being the max takeoff weight.
A final number really depends on how tightly you can pack people, but my 150 pax guess was pretty optimistic once you look at the actual size of the cargo hold. (I think you could get 150 people on but they’d have to be standing the whole time). Still, if you figure 2sqft per person that’s 114 folks sitting on the floor (maybe string ropes through the tie-downs for them to hold onto), well within weight and balance without trying to get any equipment out.