Air Show Extraordinaire

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For many of the folks at the 1997 FireExpo in Abbotsford, British Columbia, the highlight of the affair was the air show. Organized to demonstrate the latest in aerial fire-fighting and to show off some of the best in the air, the show ran like clockwork -- despite the late-spring British Columbia showers. Orchestrated with take-offs and landings timed to the minute, the air show offered a glimpse of the future of fighting fire from the air.

Flying Tankers flew a Martin Mars fitted with a side-drop foam system, and another fitted with a belly-drop foam system. With a wing span of 200 feet and a cruise speed of 160 knots, the 120-foot Mars packs a payload of 60,000 pounds and can make 21 drops of 600 gallons each. The four Wright engines, at 2500 HP each, will punch the Mars up to 200 knots.

Canadian Helicopters Ltd. brought in a Sikorsky S-61L to demo SEI's new bucket-within-a-bucket system. Pilots Shane Armstrong and Darcy Dunn flew the helicopter with a 50-foot longline, filling from a Stillwel and demonstrating impressive water drops. Conair and Air Tractor paired up for a demo of the Airtractor 802 with its single Pratt & Whitney engine and inflight retardant recirculation system. Air Tractor's patented constant-flow "fire retardant delivery system" delivers 800 gallons of retardant with a useful load of 9080 pounds. Pilot T. Garrish, who's been with Conair for 15 years, has over 12,000 hours in the air, with about 4000 hours fire fighting. This tanker, with a cruise speed of 162 knots, carries more than its own empty weight, and can land fully loaded at 16,000 pounds. It maxes out at 195 knots, and has a range of 630 miles loaded.

Then IFEX/Eclipse ran an Eclipse model 357 helicopter over the crowd, showing off their dual IFEX 3000 water cannons. This single-pilot operation packs 18 shots of 18 liters each, and the pilot can choose either of two additives carried. The helicopter's Turbomeca Arriel engine powers up to a top speed of 115 knots, with a cruise speed of 105. Bombardier and Canadair demonstrated their popular CL-215, set up with two foam tanks and an auto-injection system. This water bomber, with a wing span of nearly 95 feet, has a disposable payload of 13,000 pounds. Its twin Pratt & Whitney engines allow for a cruise speed of 150 knots.

Bell Helicopter, Tasman, and SEI Industries cooperated on a demo of a Bell 407 with a "Sacksafoam III" delivery system and a 2200-pound payload in a Bambi bucket. More than 600 helicopter operators use SEI's Bambi buckets, which are unparalleled for accuracy in water or foam drops. The heavy lift bucket will dump 350 gallons in about three seconds. The new Sacksafoam unit fits inside the helicopter, with a discharge line running down to the bucket.

Conair and the BC Forest Service showed how Rapattack is done in Canada, running a Bell 205 A-1 up above the tarmac and spitting three rappellers down a string in a hurry.

The outfit that stole the show, though, was the Air-Cranes. The giant Sikorsky helicopters from Canadian Air-Crane (a subsidiary of Erickson Air-Crane in Central Point, Oregon) blew the crowd away with their high-powered demo of a pair of S-64s, one with a 3000-gallon belly-dump system, and the other fitted with Erickson's hot-off-the-press front-mounted foam cannon. FireExpo visitors were treated to what fire-fighting operations manager Kenny Chapman says was just the third test flight of the foam cannon. Imagine, if you can, a foam-launching cannon on the front of an 88-foot Sikorsky, shooting a torrent of foam to a distance of nearly 150 feet. Observers on the tarmac commented that they kept expecting to see the helicopter jerk backward from the recoil -- but it held steady for minute after minute after minute. A second Sky-Crane ran loads from its belly-dump system simultaneously, which prompted expo visitors to comment around the dinner tables that evening that they wouldn't want to follow that in an air show. Expo organizers the next day evidently persuaded Erickson pilots to take the last slot for the air demo.

Everyone agreed that the front-mounted foam cannon would be the perfect response to a metro high-rise fire. Helicopter pulls up to the 17th floor, inserts cannon through picture window, and blasts foam clean through the other side of the building. This scenario spawned a two-day series of jokes about the guy in the 17th floor apartment (you have to say this with your best redneck drawl): There I was, mindin' my own business, shavin' in front of the bathroom mirror, when all of a sudden, through the livin' room window comes a gi-huge-i-mous helicopter cannon, and the next thing I knew, I was pinned spread-eagled against the other wall, covered in foam and flat immobilized. But by golly, that kitchen fire was OUT. I mean, there I was, mindin' my own business ...

After watching the Barricade foam gel demo and the Erickson Air-Crane demo, I want to know what happens if you load an Air-Crane tank with Barricade and slime a warehouse. It could be the future of fire wars in the interface. You read it here.