oops http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d46BefNn878&feature=related posted by outsider at 9:37 PM on May 10, 2009
anthill: Perfect! I was just thinking; "That's not an Air Tractor, THIS is an Air Tractor!" Watching a Martin Mars go over at 100 ft you would think it was moving at all of 5 knots they are so damn big. posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:43 PM on May 10, 2009
To me this is really cool because in my sleep I have two recurring dreams - that I can fly and that I'm pissing in public. This combines both. posted by twoleftfeet at 10:01 PM on May 10, 2009 [2 favorites]
The musical accompaniment here on this clip is, for me, the perfect representation of everything wrong with and embarrassing about pop music today.
I have been watching way too much of this stuff for the last 5 days.
Everything from little helos with a bucket underneath to the DC-10.
Thank you firefighters. posted by Iron Rat at 10:49 PM on May 10, 2009
The Air tractor is an impressive little beast! Its brother, the 'Fire Boss' is even more so, with the ability to scoop up water from rivers/lakes...
Burhanistan's links showing a 747 as a firefighter is impressive, but strikes me as a white elephant -- its round-trip time must be huge as it needs a 'proper' runway and infrastructure for the refill, not just some nearby field -- making long round-trip time... So it may be able to drop 7 times as much water as the smaller planes, but, is that enough?
(ok, found some stats in an evergreen promo video... The video says that in a 16hr period, nearly 90,000 galls can be dropped, so thats 5600 galls/hr.
The Martin Mars in anthill's link has a 7000 gal capacity, and a 15 min round-trip time with a nearby lake to scoop from - that is already more than 4 times the drop capacity of the 747... Even The Fireboss with it's tiny 650gall tank can beat that, provided a lake or river lake is within 10miles of the fire!)
Anyway, IANAAFE (aerial firefighting expert)... Here is an airliners.net thread discussing pretty much what I mentioned, including someone who worked on the EV 747 tanker... posted by nielm at 2:56 AM on May 11, 2009
To me this is really cool because in my sleep I have two recurring dreams - that I can fly and that I'm pissing in public. This combines both.
Amsterdam does the same for me. posted by gman at 4:20 AM on May 11, 2009
Anthill, Mei's lost sandal: Air Tractor refers to a specific brand of airplanes. So a Martin Mars is not an Air Tractor. posted by Authorized User at 4:56 AM on May 11, 2009
I've never seen a turbine Air Tractor before, interesting. They're still ugly as sin, though. posted by backseatpilot at 5:00 AM on May 11, 2009
Cool. "Unflattering music" indeed. Not being much of a Pop guy, I never knew that song was where the Lego people ripped off the Bionicle "Creeps from the Deeps" song. Which my kids like and I've heard far too often. posted by sneebler at 5:30 AM on May 11, 2009
And then there's the CL-415, the turboprop replacement for the old radial-engined CL-215 "Flying Fire Truck". Here's an official promo video with most of the marketing stuff cut out of the middle... some interesting shots of it being flown a bit aerobatically at the end there.
To me this is really cool because in my sleep I have two recurring dreams - that I can fly and that I'm pissing in public. This combines both.
If they could combine this with walking around with no pants on, my teeth falling out, and being late for the exam we'd both be satisfied. posted by Turtles all the way down at 6:17 AM on May 11, 2009
Whenever Mrs. exogenous hears crap music coming out of my computer, she assumes I'm looking at airplane videos. She's usually right. posted by exogenous at 8:24 AM on May 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
I've never seen a turbine Air Tractor before, interesting. They're still ugly as sin, though.
I see your Air Tractor and raise you an Airtruk, a plane so goddarn ugly it featured in "Beyond Thunderdome". posted by Skeptic at 8:36 AM on May 11, 2009
posted by anthill at 9:36 PM on May 10, 2009