I did a trial of the RTES (rope troop extraction system) in an RAF Merlin (those were the days!) with the absolute legend Wg Cdr John Coxen (killed in the Lynx shootdown in Iraq 2006).
I remember Boscombe had flown the first trial with dummies and we did the first ‘live’ trial. We flew 6 Rocks who knew something was up and had invited their families to watch! It all went well but downwind at 1000’ in the circuit at Benson I have never wished for a flight to be over as quickly as that one, putting them back on the ground was a very delicate exercise and took quite a while to do safely.
i think it went down as a success but just too risky to be done for anything other than an emergency. As an endnote all the Rocks had a great day out apart from one, who had trapped a testicle in the harness during the initial lift and spent the next 15 minutes in severe discomfort. I have a photo somewhere I can maybe share. As for the traitors I think it was pretty silly for a tv show….ours was pretty silly too but potentially for lifesaving operations.