Fire plane. History and modernity

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

Large-scale fires, both natural and anthropogenic, pose a serious threat to the country's forest resources, flora and fauna, and the environment in general, and often pose a direct threat to the safety of human life. The main function of fire aviation is the timely detection, localization and rapid elimination of fires over large areas.

Winged firefighters. Home

The first test flights to neutralize the fire element (Shaturskoye forestry, Moscow region) were made in the summer of 1932 by a U-2 biplane. Bombs with a special chemical composition were dropped on the fires. Also, the first firefighting aircraft was equipped with a 200-liter tank, from which a special solution was sprayed, creating barrier strips that prevent the spread of fire. The results were unsatisfactory, but the main directions for the development of aviation fire extinguishing technology were determined.

Fire aviation of the USSR

For more than half a century, they have been actively used to monitor the fire situation, deliver people and goods, variousmodifications of the multifunctional aircraft AN-2. In 1964, a specialized model was developed - the AN-2P fire-fighting tanker aircraft, capable of delivering 1240 liters of an aqueous solution to the fire in tanks.

At the end of the 80s, the forest fire squadron was replenished with Antonov Design Bureau aircraft equipped with external water-filling devices with a capacity of 2 tons. AN-26P had two such tanks, AN-32P - four. The AN-32P FAIRKILLER aircraft especially distinguished themselves during the elimination of fires in the Crimea (1993) and Portugal (1994).

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of an airmobile group under the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations in 1994, another firefighting aircraft, the IL-76TD, became operational.

Time of the Giants

To eliminate fires on large areas, the ID-76TD is understaffed with two EAPs (pour aviation devices), with a total capacity of 42 m33. The fleet of the Ministry of Emergency Situations received five such aircraft. Strategic water bombers have repeatedly been used to fight mass fires on Sakhalin, in the Khabarovsk Territory and Transbaikalia, in the Amur Region and Primorye.

Combat operation showed mixed results. In terms of technical characteristics and uniqueness of design developments, the VAP-2 was far superior to all analogues that existed at that time - a firefighting aircraft could produce a massive discharge of water in just 4 seconds from a height of 50 meters. But the significant remoteness of airfields with the length of the runway necessary for this class of aircraft, the lack of infrastructure for refueling and watersignificantly reduced work efficiency.

Amphibious aircraft

Significant contribution to the development of the domestic firefighting aircraft industry was made by the specialists of the Taganrog Aviation Complex. Beriev. The first Be-12P-200 amphibious firefighting aircraft was tested in 1996.

In the fuselage of the machine are mounted two containers of 6 m each3, divided into two parts with independent shutters. The board is equipped with a control and measuring complex for monitoring the environment, equipment for targeted water discharge. How does a firefighting plane take on water? There are two options. The first one is available to all aircraft - refueling at the airfield. With good technical support, the Be-12P will refuel within half an hour. In the second way - in the planing mode above the water surface - only amphibians fill the tanks with water. For the same Be-12P, this procedure will take 14-16 seconds.

Since 2012, the multifunctional Be-200ChS has also been fighting fire. The refueling time on gliding was reduced to 12 s. Volley discharge of water takes less than a second. Fully filled fuel tanks of the amphibious aircraft will be enough to deliver over 300 tons of water to the epicenter of the fire.