Posted on 10/07/2011 6:28:41 AM PDT by decimon
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Boeing's system features several water balloons that can hold up to 250 gallons of water or specialized fire-retardant. The idea is to equip regular C-130 cargo planes with several water balloons that can be dropped at a much higher altitude than traditional firefighting airplanes. This results in a much more accurate method of delivery that can cover an even broader area than conventional air-drop methods.
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(Excerpt) Read more at tomsguide.com ...
like putting out a housefire with an eyedropper, it looks.
What do you do?
I drop water balloons from airplanes.
Almost looks like a modified CDS type system.....interesting. This could revolutionize fighting fires.
The time has come for laser-guided water balloons.
Not what you’d normally think of as a “fire control specialist.”
Maybe they should test it in New York. Can you imagine getting hit with a 250 pound water ballon? Talk about a bad hair day!
Would or the other would?
It would probably be the first bath in weeks, for some of the "Occupiers."
I think there was a Seinfeld episode that featured something like this.
I still prefer the personal touch however.
Yeah, I know. I was just kidding around.
It the cardboard boxes and the wooden pallets that I’d be worried about.
Boeing has a nice video: http://www.boeing.com/Features/2011/09/bds_pcads_09_20_11.html
No problem, they'll just burn. ;-)
I’ve been ‘slymed’ by close water support. That was hard enough.
Dropping 250lb from altitude will not end well for those on the ground.
New meaning to the term ‘ heavy water ‘
Try 250 GALLONS, which is pretty close to one ton of water. But you’re still right. Bad hair day AND flattened, to boot.
I’ve seen this before...just can’t find the video.
It’s actually quite effective...the ‘balloons’ are not sealed...basically they are water filled bags contained in the cardboard boxes...as soon as they exit the plane, they are opened by the flow of air, and the water is dispersed.
The main advantages of this approach with the C130’s short takeoff capability, it can refill much closer to the fire (allowing for more water drops in a given amount of time), and refilling will be much faster, since all that has to be done on the ground is that the boxes are loaded into the cargo hold—the plane doesn’t have to sit there and wait to be filled with hoses.
People shouldn’t knock it until it’s allowed to be tried in an actual fire.
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