Deuterium
07-11-2004, 06:25 PM
AeroTech Ltd.
Developing the Next Generation of Airtankers
FireHogTM Airtankers
A-10 Flight Demonstration for Californian Fire Fighters
Using high performance attack aircraft for attacking wildfires has always been a critical part of our proposal. There are firefighters and officials who are satisfied with the performance of today's airtankers because that's all they know. They rejected the A-10 because they'd never seen one. Well, now a very respected fire fighter's group has seen the A-10 fly.
Two military A-10s flew a demonstration for fire fighters on September 18, 1997 during a meeting of the Watershed Fire Council of Southern California at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Orange County, California. The Watershed Fire Council was formed over 45 years ago by Supervisors of the nine southern-most California counties in order to improve their collective protection against wildfire. Since then, the Council has been instrumental in facilitating coordination and innovation for fire services in their counties, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) and federal agencies such as the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. As experienced fire fighters with governmental support representing two thirds of California’s population, they’re very influential on wildfire issues.
September 18th dawned clear and calm. The A-10 pilots taxied out at 9:15 as the press and crowd arrived on the fight line in front of El Toro’s museum. The press conducted interviews until the Hogs ‘attacked’ unnoticed from their left to open the demonstration and show their normal low altitude, high speed performance. Sneaking up on people is an A-10 specialty and it worked again. In this context, that translates into a quiet aircraft which will generate few noise complaints as it works near homes. The Hogs then flew three variations on the low and slow airtanker passes they were there to demonstrate.
Current tankers are handicapped by their lack of "drag devices" like speed brakes to prevent speed from building up while they descend to drop retardant. For example, C-130s are sometimes forced to slow as far as 110 knots (not comfortable or safe) in order to not overspeed the flaps at the bottom of a downhill drop run. You can see that this A-10’s speed brakes, those flat plates near the wingtips, are partially open. A-10s have no problem descending in a steep turn without gaining speed (important for getting into tight spaces) as shown when each A-10 flew a constant speed descending turn from 1500’ to 250’. The leader’s first pass simulated a level retardant drop pattern that ended with a 25 degree climb angle demonstrating their ability to get back out of a canyon.
Because today’s tankers drop retardant while flying so close to their stall speeds, they can’t maneuver very well when lining up for a drop. Stall speed increases with increased bank angle so an aircraft that can just stay in the air at its retardant drop speed (typically 1.3 times stall speed) will crash if it rolls to 30 degrees of bank. That truism contributed to over half of the CDF’s 16 S-2 crashes. The second demo A-10 proved that Hogs don’t have that limitation by making the same decent as his leader and then flying a tight turn at over 60 degrees of bank while still flying at drop speeds. You can see that his speed brakes are partially extended too. Another benefit to speed brakes is that they allow the engines to run at high power without gaining airspeed. Since the brakes close in less than a second, that arrangement eliminates any lag between slow flight and high power. That’s another safety plus for the FireHogTM airtanker.
The A-10s then rejoined into an offset trail formation to prove that they can fly those same maneuvers in formation to multiply the retardant coverage options available to fire fighters on the ground. The wingman stayed 300’ behind and slightly to the right as the flight leader repeated his descending turn, drop run and steep climb out pattern. That ability gives fire fighters the options of increasing retardant coverage or linking retardant patterns in the air to eliminate gaps that result when pilots miss the previous pattern on the ground.
The flight leader then demonstrated a short field landing using 1500 feet of runway before they taxied in for a static display and more interviews. The Hog Drivers answered questions about their jets while our FireHogTM airtankers rep discussed the conversion to an airtanker.
The Council and invited guests then moved to lunch and their quarterly meeting. This demo was a watershed event for a number of the Council members. There was no more doubt on flight performance so the discussion covered availability, ownership issues, costs etc. A couple Council members were especially interested in the mechanics of moving A-10s or other retired aircraft from the DoD to fire fighting agencies. They also asked a number of questions on possible cooperation with industry on research and development plus the incentives that would bring that industry cooperation. Money is a serious problem for fire fighters.
Several Forest Service officers commented strongly that airtankers couldn't solve all their problems and said they resented over inflated claims. So do we. In context, they were reacting to the continuing saga of the Canadair CL-415 in Los Angeles by painting us with that same broad publicity brush. The Super Scooper was demonstrated on the day before the A-10 flight as Los Angeles politicians again leased that tanker over the objections of the county's fire fighters. The S-2T was also sold to California’s Legislature on inflated performance claims. Our FireHogTM airtankers rep pointed out that the fact sheet they held emphasized the A-10's potential effectiveness at initial attack and made no claim to be able to stop a wind-driven wildfire (an impossible mission). That discussion tied in well with several stories of tankers being held off fires recently by a valley full of smoke (exactly the common situation that drove the FireHogTM airtanker's unique infrared system requirement) and slow initial attack after immediate phone calls from citizens who witnessed the ignition. In spite of its potential, immediate fire reporting and recent airtanker marketing claims, aerial initial attack still failed largely due to equipment limits.
For the record, again, we strongly believe FireHogTM airtankers should be just one tool in the aviation bag of tricks that must also include heavy tankers and heavy lift helicopters like this one fighting a fire on Camp Pendleton, California while the A-10 demonstration was going on. We have never and will never claim to be able to stop every fire or to have much effect on a Santa Ana driven fire. But a FireHogTM airtanker would certainly fly initial attack much more effectively than any other proposed fixed wing tanker while costing roughly half as much to convert as the turbine S-2.
This event settled the performance questions. The next steps will involve yet more political issues. For example, Los Angeles continues to lease Scoopers for over three times the cost to convert an A-10 in spite of five reports that the plane doesn’t work well in California. The Forest Service continues to deny responsibility for the Urban Interface in spite of its lead role in places like Lake Arrowhead, California and the areas Northeast of Sacramento. The DoD continues to tell politicians that there aren’t any spare A-10s in spite of the fact that over 32 of them are in museums and over 300 are off the books.
We’ll see
Source... http://www.firehogs.com/a10demo.shtml
http://www.firehogs.com/photos/bottom.jpg
http://www.firehogs.com/photos/frontlef.jpg
http://www.firehogs.com/photos/rightsid.jpg
Developing the Next Generation of Airtankers
FireHogTM Airtankers
A-10 Flight Demonstration for Californian Fire Fighters
Using high performance attack aircraft for attacking wildfires has always been a critical part of our proposal. There are firefighters and officials who are satisfied with the performance of today's airtankers because that's all they know. They rejected the A-10 because they'd never seen one. Well, now a very respected fire fighter's group has seen the A-10 fly.
Two military A-10s flew a demonstration for fire fighters on September 18, 1997 during a meeting of the Watershed Fire Council of Southern California at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Orange County, California. The Watershed Fire Council was formed over 45 years ago by Supervisors of the nine southern-most California counties in order to improve their collective protection against wildfire. Since then, the Council has been instrumental in facilitating coordination and innovation for fire services in their counties, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) and federal agencies such as the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. As experienced fire fighters with governmental support representing two thirds of California’s population, they’re very influential on wildfire issues.
September 18th dawned clear and calm. The A-10 pilots taxied out at 9:15 as the press and crowd arrived on the fight line in front of El Toro’s museum. The press conducted interviews until the Hogs ‘attacked’ unnoticed from their left to open the demonstration and show their normal low altitude, high speed performance. Sneaking up on people is an A-10 specialty and it worked again. In this context, that translates into a quiet aircraft which will generate few noise complaints as it works near homes. The Hogs then flew three variations on the low and slow airtanker passes they were there to demonstrate.
Current tankers are handicapped by their lack of "drag devices" like speed brakes to prevent speed from building up while they descend to drop retardant. For example, C-130s are sometimes forced to slow as far as 110 knots (not comfortable or safe) in order to not overspeed the flaps at the bottom of a downhill drop run. You can see that this A-10’s speed brakes, those flat plates near the wingtips, are partially open. A-10s have no problem descending in a steep turn without gaining speed (important for getting into tight spaces) as shown when each A-10 flew a constant speed descending turn from 1500’ to 250’. The leader’s first pass simulated a level retardant drop pattern that ended with a 25 degree climb angle demonstrating their ability to get back out of a canyon.
Because today’s tankers drop retardant while flying so close to their stall speeds, they can’t maneuver very well when lining up for a drop. Stall speed increases with increased bank angle so an aircraft that can just stay in the air at its retardant drop speed (typically 1.3 times stall speed) will crash if it rolls to 30 degrees of bank. That truism contributed to over half of the CDF’s 16 S-2 crashes. The second demo A-10 proved that Hogs don’t have that limitation by making the same decent as his leader and then flying a tight turn at over 60 degrees of bank while still flying at drop speeds. You can see that his speed brakes are partially extended too. Another benefit to speed brakes is that they allow the engines to run at high power without gaining airspeed. Since the brakes close in less than a second, that arrangement eliminates any lag between slow flight and high power. That’s another safety plus for the FireHogTM airtanker.
The A-10s then rejoined into an offset trail formation to prove that they can fly those same maneuvers in formation to multiply the retardant coverage options available to fire fighters on the ground. The wingman stayed 300’ behind and slightly to the right as the flight leader repeated his descending turn, drop run and steep climb out pattern. That ability gives fire fighters the options of increasing retardant coverage or linking retardant patterns in the air to eliminate gaps that result when pilots miss the previous pattern on the ground.
The flight leader then demonstrated a short field landing using 1500 feet of runway before they taxied in for a static display and more interviews. The Hog Drivers answered questions about their jets while our FireHogTM airtankers rep discussed the conversion to an airtanker.
The Council and invited guests then moved to lunch and their quarterly meeting. This demo was a watershed event for a number of the Council members. There was no more doubt on flight performance so the discussion covered availability, ownership issues, costs etc. A couple Council members were especially interested in the mechanics of moving A-10s or other retired aircraft from the DoD to fire fighting agencies. They also asked a number of questions on possible cooperation with industry on research and development plus the incentives that would bring that industry cooperation. Money is a serious problem for fire fighters.
Several Forest Service officers commented strongly that airtankers couldn't solve all their problems and said they resented over inflated claims. So do we. In context, they were reacting to the continuing saga of the Canadair CL-415 in Los Angeles by painting us with that same broad publicity brush. The Super Scooper was demonstrated on the day before the A-10 flight as Los Angeles politicians again leased that tanker over the objections of the county's fire fighters. The S-2T was also sold to California’s Legislature on inflated performance claims. Our FireHogTM airtankers rep pointed out that the fact sheet they held emphasized the A-10's potential effectiveness at initial attack and made no claim to be able to stop a wind-driven wildfire (an impossible mission). That discussion tied in well with several stories of tankers being held off fires recently by a valley full of smoke (exactly the common situation that drove the FireHogTM airtanker's unique infrared system requirement) and slow initial attack after immediate phone calls from citizens who witnessed the ignition. In spite of its potential, immediate fire reporting and recent airtanker marketing claims, aerial initial attack still failed largely due to equipment limits.
For the record, again, we strongly believe FireHogTM airtankers should be just one tool in the aviation bag of tricks that must also include heavy tankers and heavy lift helicopters like this one fighting a fire on Camp Pendleton, California while the A-10 demonstration was going on. We have never and will never claim to be able to stop every fire or to have much effect on a Santa Ana driven fire. But a FireHogTM airtanker would certainly fly initial attack much more effectively than any other proposed fixed wing tanker while costing roughly half as much to convert as the turbine S-2.
This event settled the performance questions. The next steps will involve yet more political issues. For example, Los Angeles continues to lease Scoopers for over three times the cost to convert an A-10 in spite of five reports that the plane doesn’t work well in California. The Forest Service continues to deny responsibility for the Urban Interface in spite of its lead role in places like Lake Arrowhead, California and the areas Northeast of Sacramento. The DoD continues to tell politicians that there aren’t any spare A-10s in spite of the fact that over 32 of them are in museums and over 300 are off the books.
We’ll see
Source... http://www.firehogs.com/a10demo.shtml
http://www.firehogs.com/photos/bottom.jpg
http://www.firehogs.com/photos/frontlef.jpg
http://www.firehogs.com/photos/rightsid.jpg