Probably one of the coolest type rating ever is the Bell 209. The Bell 209, originally developed from the UH1 began its life as the AH1 Cobra. A US Army gunship serving in Vietnam. The AH1 still serves the Marines today, but… it also is used for fire fighting. There are a fleet of Bell 209s used by California to spot out fires.
One of the coolest things I just learned is the 209 with a tank!
Originally built by the Florida DOF, this program was design to use Cobras to fight fires. Florida added a 400 Gallon tank and tested it out on fires. Though Bell supported this idea our friendly Feds did not. At the end the Feds declined this action though the blades are from a Bell 214ST, it’s a UH1 design. To this day Cobras cannot sling load or drop water. This has been your super cool aviation fire history!
Funny you mention this - The Russian KA32 and the Skycrane can actually do this! When Evergreen was a thing the CEO predicted in the future we have high buildings and needed helicopter with hoses on the front to help combat fires. Bell and everyone said he was crazy’s
The title of this topic got me thinking of how our military here in Sweden stopped the spreading of some massive wildfires last year - by dropping 270kg bombs from a couple of Saab J-39 Gripen…
That’s like saying that the Russians stopped a fire by dropping NAPALM on it. But now that I think, I guess blowing up the land would halt the fire from spreading.
I wonder what would happen if they dropped a nuke or a MOAB on a fire. I will buy you a new Harley Davidson and then ship it to Sweden if that ever happens.
Please note that I am joking. I cannot even afford a month of pro.
Easier ways but I think the commander wanted have fun, we did some legit control burns this year basically napalm in a ping pong ball was dropped from our helicopters which would cause fires, every pre caution steps were taken it’s really cool the science behind control fires.
