Airfield fire engine
Airport fire engines (FLF) are large, in Germany not standardized fire engines , which the fire to make sure to airports. FLF is a special fire-fighting vehicle with a tank capacity of up to 15 cubic meters of water as well as foam concentrate, large monitors and often sophisticated self-protection devices (floor spray nozzles). FLF are characterized by their high acceleration , top speeds of up to 140 km / h and off-road mobility, in order to be able to reach every point of action on the airfield as quickly as possible.
tasks
The tasks of the airfield fire engine are:
- Fast and massive fire fighting on property areas of the air traffic, even in rough terrain
- Fighting wildfires outside the airport at the request of the municipal fire department
Abbreviations and paging names
The abbreviation for airfield fire fighting vehicle is FLF or for large airfield fire fighting vehicle GFLF. The digits 25 ( GTLF ) or 29 (other TLF ) are used as radio call names (depending on the country) .
Release orders
FLF are usually the mainstay of the fire brigades of airfield fire departments . As a rule, the vehicle fleet of an airport or airfield fire brigade is also supplemented by other types of vehicle for other purposes. The minimum vehicle equipment of an airport or airfield fire brigade is defined by the ICAO fire protection category, which is binding for all member states of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). Can the requirements z. B. are no longer fulfilled due to a technical or personnel failure, the operating license of the airport expires.
technology
standardization
FLF are not standardized. However, there are widely used types such as the Ziegler Z8 , the Rosenbauer Simba or the Rosenbauer Panther , from manufacturers such as Brescia Antincendi International (BAI), Rosenbauer , Saval-Kronenburg , Amdac Carmichael International , Gimaex-Schmitz , Simon Gloster Saro , Reynolds Boughton , Metz , E-One , Oshkosh , Sides , Magirus or Ziegler , which u. a. specialize in the construction of fire engines. In addition, z. B. Bremen Airport also produces large vehicles on its own.
technical structure
FLF are often implemented in the form of large, particularly heavy trucks (often also military chassis). Since the vehicles are specially designed for use on non-public areas, the stipulations of the StVZO do not have to be observed during construction. FLF therefore often have a width of over 3 m and a total weight of significantly more than 40 t. Since air accidents can also occur away from paved taxiways or runways , FLF are usually not only highly motorized (sometimes well over 1,000 HP / 735 kW), but also remarkably off-road. Another characteristic of the FLF is its high acceleration and enormous top speed of sometimes over 140 km / h, some of which it can reach in 40 seconds. In this way, despite the high total weight, a quick approach in time-critical damage situations should be made possible. At major airports, these fire engines must be able to reach every point in the area within three minutes. Since there are no hydrants in the area of the runways , the extinguishing agents must be carried with you and are used up quickly within minutes. Hence the size and weight of the vehicles.
Fire-fighting equipment
The loading of the FLF is very limited due to the large water and foam agent tanks. Airfield fire- fighting vehicles are usually equipped with several front and roof monitors for deploying the extinguishing agents foam , water and powder . It is mostly operated by pumps (up to 10,000 liters per minute) with their own drive, in order to be independent of the vehicle engine and to be able to start the fire-fighting attack while driving. Due to the high level of automation (joystick control of the throwers from the cabin), very few personnel are often required. Newer vehicles are also equipped with telescopic extinguishing arms (HRET), some of which penetrate the aircraft skin with an extinguishing lance and thus can also fight fires inside the aircraft. In individual cases, lighting, hydraulic rescue equipment , ladders or smaller quantities of other extinguishing agents ( nitrogen ) are carried along.
history
For civil aviation in Germany: In the early days, military aviation was the pacemaker for the development of aircraft fire protection . Even before the First World War , the first special extinguishing devices to protect flight operations were procured at the Berlin-Johannisthal airfield and sports field . The first real motorized syringes were acquired during the World War. However, these differed little from the common ones of the time. In 1927, the first special vehicle, a so-called dismantling vehicle, was procured in Breslau . In the period from 1933 onwards, safety requirements for the airfields were laid down for the first time and special air-powered jets with very extensive foam equipment were created. The Luftwaffe now set the tone and introduced the widespread tank syringe 2.5, which was equipped with 2,500 liters of water and 300 liters of foam compound and formed the backbone of aircraft fire protection throughout the Second World War .
After the end of the war, civilian flight operations came back to Germany only slowly. At the airports, the old equipment was mostly used again after the necessary repairs. In the 1950s and 1960s, the operators procured the first new vehicles, mostly FLF 25 and feeder vehicles ZB 6/24. With regard to the extinguishing agents carried, the new ones mostly corresponded to the old aviator tank syringes, but were equipped with a closed structure and water cannons on the roof. During this time, runway foaming was also used as a means for emergency landings and special foaming trailers were ordered. Finally, the first pure powder or dry fire extinguishing vehicles with up to 2,000 kg of extinguishing agent found their way to the airports.
A new era in aircraft fire protection began with the introduction of the Boeing 747 jumbo jets in the early 1970s . Stricter regulatory safety requirements made completely redesigned vehicles necessary. This led to a gigantism that was particularly evident in Germany at the Frankfurt am Main and Munich airports . For example, bodies on four-axle Faun special chassis from various manufacturers were provided with up to 18,000 liters of water plus 2,000 liters of foam concentrate. Dry fire extinguishing vehicles reached amounts of extinguishing agent up to 12,000 kg of powder.
At the beginning of the 1980s, however, it was recognized that the extinguishing giants were too clumsy. In order to comply with the legal requirements for intervention times, initially smaller RIVs (Rapid Intervention Vehicles) with high engine power and moderate extinguishing agent loading were procured. In Germany, however, airports began to order larger FLF again as early as the late 1980s. This generation, which is still current today, carries up to 15 tons of different extinguishing agents with an engine power that exceeds that of the extinguishing giants from the 1970s. End-of-life vehicles are usually re-used at smaller airports or are sold abroad.
In the GDR , as in the West, end-of-life vehicles were first used after the war. From the mid-1950s, TLF 15/53 on Horch G5 chassis of local production were also put into service for airports . When international flight operations began, however, it became clear that the GDR vehicles did not meet the requirements. Therefore one imported FLF 25 from the FRG . From the end of the 1960s, the TLF 32 came on the Czechoslovak Tatra 138 chassis and later 148 . The Karosa superstructure held 6,000 liters of water and 600 liters of foam concentrate. In the mid-1980s these were replaced by the Tatra 815 with a Karosa structure (8,200 liters of water, 800 liters of foam concentrate). But even these vehicles did not meet the technical standard in the West, because, for example, the only turret on the roof still had to be operated manually, the foam concentrate pump was too small and the top speed was too low in comparison.
See also
literature
- Walter Hamilton, Paul Baetzner: Handbook for the firefighter. 17th, revised edition. Boorberg, Stuttgart et al. 1992, ISBN 3-415-01705-2 .
- Wolfgang Rotter, Jochen Thorns: Fire engines at airports in Germany. Podszun, Brilon 2002, ISBN 3-86133-298-1 .
