Fire-fighting aircraft
A fighting aircraft is a specially designed for fire fighting vehicle equipped with tanks aircraft .
Absorption and delivery of extinguishing agents
In conventional fixed-wing aircraft, the water tanks are usually filled using hoses on a regular airfield or on makeshift runways near the place of use.
Flying boats and amphibious planes, which are used as fire fighting aircraft, can usually absorb water from a body of water during the flight by submerging them with filling pipes into the water, but without landing on the water.
A high engine power is required to absorb large amounts of water quickly. If the CL-415 shown absorbs 6 t of water in 12 s at a speed of 160 km / h, this results in a braking force of 22 kN, for which the motors have to deliver an additional 1000 kW so that the aircraft maintains its speed.
Some steam locomotives used a very similar principle above a special trough in the tracks . The advantage here is, in addition to being able to carry out several drops within a short period of time, especially the longer duration of use, because corresponding aircraft fly close to the area of operation with less load and thus need less fuel.
Helicopters hover in a special external container that dips into the water on a rope . Chemicals can be added to the extinguishing water to increase efficiency; these can be colored to serve as a marker for the pilot. Throwing off the water load - ie letting it out and falling - typically only takes 3–5 seconds.
The release of the extinguishing agent is mostly done in low flight by the pilot or another crew member.
Application area
Extinguishing aircraft have been in large-scale use in forest fires since 1953 and are usually the only way to use extinguishing agents in impassable terrain at short notice.
Special features of special fire fighting aircraft
The Canadair CL-215 was the first aircraft that was specially designed as a fire fighting aircraft. Together with the successor model Canadair CL-415 , it still forms the backbone of airborne forest fire fighting in the Mediterranean countries and Canada.
Fire fighting aircraft are structurally designed in such a way that they can withstand the fluctuating loads on the structure caused by the fire fighting operations, in particular the interception after the extinguishing water has been triggered, and the strong gusts in the area of a fire. However, fire fighting operations are fundamentally more dangerous than conventional flights, accidents happen again and again.
Other firefighting aircraft: Martin JRM , Beriev Be-12P-200 , Beriev Be-200 , Boeing 747 Evergreen Supertanker , DC10-10 , IL-76P
Lockheed C-130 as a fire fighting aircraft
Agricultural aircraft as fire fighting aircraft
Many agricultural aircraft can also hold extinguishing water in their tanks and thus be used for targeted fire fighting. Although these aircraft can only carry relatively small amounts of water and are not primarily intended for fire-fighting, their design means they have good slow-flight properties and in most cases can also operate from unpaved runways in the vicinity of the location. The German Fire Brigade Rescue Squadron (DLFR) is building a squadron with PZL M18 dromaders, which are refueled with extinguishing water by the fire brigade.
An agricultural machine of the type PZL M18 Dromader throwing fire-fighting water
An agricultural machine of the type Air Tractor AT-802 throwing fire-fighting water
Helicopter in action
Helicopters can also be used to fight fires. For this, either permanently installed tanks on or in the helicopter cell or external fire water containers on the load hook are used. In Germany hold u. a. the federal police and the armed forces have medium-weight transport helicopters of the type Aérospatiale AS 332 and Sikorsky CH-53 G ready for extinguishing operations with extinguishing water external load containers.
An Aérospatiale AS 332 throws extinguishing water from an external load extinguishing container.
A Bell 205 throws extinguishing water from a permanently installed cell tank.
Unmanned multicopters
In September 2015, FliteTest presented the development of a small Y-hexacopter drone in the USA, which extinguishes remotely with powdered (1.22 kg (2 lb. 11 oz.), 25 s spray duration) or aqueous extinguishing agent. The drone, which weighs around 4.5 kg, is foldable, stands on a pair of runners, can be pulled by a model car on the ground and is equipped with a green laser aiming beam and onboard video camera with transmission to the remote control pilot. The Firecopter prototype developed by Peter bears the number 87.
In the fall of 2016, the New York Fire Department tested for the first time an approx. 3.6 kg (approx. 8 lb.) quadrocopter drone for spying (VIS, IR ) of fires, which extendable at an approx. 61 m (200 ft ) long Tether flies and its pilot is supported by an observer.
In 2017, Sons of Explosions with Henri Kiviniemi, Finland showed how to extinguish small fires by dropping a fire bomb with extinguishing powder from an octocopter drone.
The Latvian drone manufacturer Aerones tested a drone for lifting a fire hose in order to fight fires from above.
Web links
- Images of fire-fighting planes in Provence
- Aircraft Lexicon: Air Tractor AT-402 A
- Canadair pilot (Stoilidis) made video Greek accident Evia on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ Model CL-415: Bombardier says goodbye to water bombers. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. June 21, 2016, accessed May 30, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Canadair fire fighting aircraft - Médoc notes, Medoc notes, Gironde, Euronat. Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Kneser, Hans Otto., Vogel, Helmut, 1929-: Physics: a textbook for use in addition to lectures . 15th edition Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 0-387-16155-4 , pp. 19 .
- ↑ Kneser, Hans Otto., Vogel, Helmut, 1929-: Physics: a textbook for use in addition to lectures . 15th edition Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 0-387-16155-4 , pp. 22 .
- ↑ Fire Fighting Drone. flitetest.com, September 28, 2015, accessed August 22, 2017. Series of images, video (13:08).
- ↑ Fire Fighting Drone Overview. | Flite test. FliteTest, uploaded September 29, 2015, accessed August 22, 2017. Development. Video (10:45) (English)
- ↑ Fire-fighting drones: New York Fire Dep't will deploy drones to scope out fires. - TomoNews youtube.com, uploaded September 14, 2016, accessed August 22, 2017. - Video (1:11) (English)
- ↑ Firefighter DRONE / Bomber Drone Sons Of Xplosions, youtube.com, March 9, 2017, accessed August 22, 2017. - Video (4:08) (English)