Tornado Interceptor Vehicle
Delaina Renfro
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz may have been the only one who knew what it was like to be inside a tornado until now. The Tornado Interceptor Vehicle, also known as the TIV is in Kansas hoping a tornado will form so it can capture video and scientific data never collected before.
Sean Casey, an Imax Films photographer designed the TIV so it could go into a tornado and capture IMAX film. The film is being kept secret until a documentary airs on National Geographic in October.
Built atop a Ford F-450 truck, it looks like a tank and weighs 12,000 pounds.
Equipped with quarter inch thick steel walls, half-inch thick Lexan Polycarbonate windows and a hydraulic system designed to keep it on the ground while in the middle of a tornado.
“We're making a special for National Geographic. We're based out of Hays, Kansas, and we'll be there through the entire season until June 20th,” said Lawrence Cumbo, producer for National Geographic.
The crew parked its gear in a Newton hotel parking lot and waited for the sky to start spitting out tornadoes Wednesday afternoon. The Doppler radars scanned the area for twisters but didn’t have much luck.
The TIV will take pictures using an IMAX camera. The camera is mounted on 360 degree rotating mount in the top part of the tank and information about the conditions of the tornado will be recorded.
“The goal is to use the TIV as a well as Doppler radar to record science that's never been recorded before and learn a lot more about tornadoes that we just don't have information on,” explained Cumbo.
So far the TIV has been in 13 tornadoes. Some of those the TIV has been within 50 feet. Two of them have gone directly over the TIV.
