Pilots Take On California Blazes With Powerful Aircraft

Newhouse News ^ | 10/25/2007 | Michael Milstein

[pabianice]

Is that your uptake hose or are you just glad to see me?

[diogenes ghost]

The Ka-27, used in utility role as the Ka-32, has a lifting capacity of around 8,000 lbs.

The S64-F can do 25,000 lbs.

Many jobs don't require the crane however, so a lessor lift will do in many circumstances. Plus, it's way cheaper.

But if you want a LOT of water, you gotta go with the crane.

[SJSAMPLE]

Agreed.
There aren’t a lot of S-64s around, and the Kamov is still in production and being used to good effect.
I suspect we could pick up Kamov’s relatively cheap.

[diogenes ghost]

Way more cranes than Kamovs are flying. There are only 9 Ka-32’s outside the curtain, 2 in US, 2 in Canada. There are 59 Cranes flying, with the ability to build/modify more.

[3niner]

It is my understanding that the 747 has 4 nozzles, each a foot in diameter, that point down and back. Each projects a nearly solid column of water, which adds about 12,500 pounds of thrust to the aircraft (total 50,000 pounds of thrust).

This has the effect of cancelling the forward motion of the aircraft, with respect to to the slipstream, so the water column actually experiences less of a slipstream than water dropped directly into the slipstream by a slower aircraft.

As I mentioned before, Evergreen has demonstrated that the 747 can deliver large volumes of water to the ground as a liquid from 800' AGL. This is something that no other American fire bomber can do.

[SJSAMPLE]

Really?

I thought a good number of Kamovs were being sold lately.