As we had told you in earlier stories, the famous, “Tornado Intercept Vehicle,” is at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center here in Hutchinson.
The vehicle has been made famous through the Discovery Channel Show, “Storm Chasers.” It airs weekly on the cable channel seen locally on Cox Cable Channel 42.
Sean Casey is the man behind this amazing vehicle and the I-Max movie, “Tornado Alley,” which is showing at the I-Max Theater at the Cosmosphere.
Casey has been named one of the 50 best minds of 2008 by Discover Magazine.
According to Wikipedia, he actually built two mobile armored trucks called Tornado Intercept Vehicles (TIV and TIV2) to film from inside the tornadoes he chases with Joshua Wurman and the Doppler on Wheels radar trucks
Construction began on the TIV in 2003 and cost over 80-thousand dollars, Sean began concept of the TIV after he was locked out of a minivan while a tornado was dangerously close. The windows are bullet resistant polycarbonate at 1.5 inches thick. There’s a 7.3 liter Ford Power Stroke turbodiesel under the hood, and the top speed is 85- m-p-h. The TIV weighs in at 8 tons and holds 60-gallons of fuel.
Construction began on TIV 2 in September 2007 with help from Great Plains Technology Center in Lawton, Oklahoma after Sean realized he needed to upgrade his vehicle. TIV2 weighs in at 7-tons and is a 4-wheel-drive 3-axle vehicle. It stands taller than the original TIV and is capable of going on mud and unpaved roads without the fear of getting stuck.
Casey talked with us Friday about his storm chasing this past spring, but admits that he nor his crew were prepared for what they were about to see. “When we out, we started like every other spring, but you know, we were totally unprepared for, you know, the destruction and all these EF-5 tornadoes.” Casey has seen plenty of tornadoes, but says, “that was really the first time I had seen that kind of first hand destruction.” He’s referring to string of tornadoes that struck southern states early in the spring, and eventually to the massive tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri. He told us, “ya know, it was devastating, you know, as a person witnessing it, it really took all the fun out of storm chasing and replaced with dreb.” He adds, “the only way you could come to terms with it, it to actively try to help out.”
Casey also talked about his filmaking, and told us the next step besides getting inside a tornado is to catch one in 3-D imagery. He says, “we did convert Tornado Alley into a 3-D film, and just the conversion they could do, from 2-D to 3-D was just amazing. He says he has never been a fan of 3-D, but says, “all of sudden, seeing this imagery where you see the tornado and you see the winds in different layers and getting the sense of space, it really made it more, God, it made it more aw-inspiring,” the actual imagery, it made it more like it was when we filmed it really.”
He says doing the next project and shooting in native 2-D and 3-D, uhm, I think it really adds , uh, a realism to the environment out there.”
Visitors to the Cosmosphere can register to win a ride in the TIV, while its in town through Saturday.