Aircraft Firefighting Capabilities Using Suspended Containers

Abstract

In the world, the fight against forest and industrial fires is carried out by both ground based equipment and aircraft – airplanes and helicopters. Each of these has its specific advantages and disadvantages. The use of aviation containers for extinguishing fires is an alternative to existing methods at the moment. They are particularly effective in the initial outbreaks of fires in hard-to-reach areas and fires caused by toxic substance, as well as in limiting the growth of their spread. The advantage is that they can be targeted at a specific place and, depending on the type of fire, can be filled with the corresponding fire-fighting substance. These containers can be hung on airplanes and helicopters depending on their load capacity. They are used in the following way, after their targeted drop from the aircraft at a specific effective height, the container is destroyed and a fire-fighting substance is poured onto the burning surface. The moment of release of the aviation fire-fighting container is determined depending on the flight conditions and the targeting system of the aircraft used. For this purpose, mathematical modelling of the process of using the aviation container was carried out, mathematical models for the movement of the aircraft and the aviation fire-fighting container were compiled, and a mathematical model of the targeting system was created.