Large-scale fires, both natural and man-made origin, pose a serious danger to the country's forest resources, flora and fauna, the environment as a whole, and often pose an immediate threat to the safe life of a person. The main function of fire aviation is the timely detection, localization and quick elimination of fires in large areas.
Winged fire fighters. Start
The first test flights to neutralize the fire element (Shaturskoye lesnichestvo, Moscow region) was made by the U-2 biplane in the summer of 1932. Bombs with a special chemical composition were dropped on the ignition sites. Also, the first fire-fighting aircraft was equipped with a 200-liter tank, from which a special solution was sprayed, creating barriers that prevent the spread of fire. The results were unsatisfactory, but the main directions for the development of aircraft fire fighting technology were determined.
USSR Fire Aviation
For more than half a century, various modifications of the AN-2 multifunctional aircraft have been actively used to monitor the fire situation, deliver people and goods. In 1964, a specialized model was developed - a fire-fighting tanker AN-2P, capable of delivering 1240 liters of aqueous solution to the source of ignition in tanks.
At the end of the 80s, the forest fire-fighting squad was replenished with Antonov Design Bureau aircraft equipped with external water filling devices with a capacity of 2 tons. AN-26P had two such tanks, AN-32P - four. FAIRKILLER AN-32P aircraft were especially distinguished during the elimination of fires in the Crimea (1993) and Portugal (1994).
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation in 1994 of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, an airmobile group became operational another fire aircraft - IL-76TD.
Giants time
To eliminate fires on large areas, the ID-76TD is equipped with two VAPs (aviation pouring devices) with a total capacity of 42 m 3. Emergencies Ministry fleet received five of these machines. Strategic water bombers have been repeatedly used to combat mass fires in Sakhalin, in the Khabarovsk Territory and Transbaikalia, in the Amur Region and Primorye.
Combat operation showed mixed results. The technical characteristics and the uniqueness of the design developments of the VAP-2 far exceeded all the analogues that existed at that time - a fire plane could produce a massive water discharge in just 4 seconds from a height of 50 meters. But the considerable remoteness of the airfields with the runway length necessary for this class of cars, the lack of infrastructure for refueling and fuel, significantly reduced the efficiency of work.
