Thread: Fighting fire with water ballooons

Sometimes the simplest solution will work wonders, such as tossing boxes of water balloons off the back of a cargo plane. There's a lot more military cargo craft than specialized fire fighting planes. This will be an excellent capacity for some of the Western State Air National guards to fight their summer forest fires as well.

One Per Cent: Planes could fight fires with giant water balloons

To employ lateral thinking to this problem Fox, would consider fire breaks being cut in the forest
in preparation of potential fires, and using old and current weather forecasts, determine the direction of the wind
and where to make the breaks.
nokton

Originally Posted by nokton

To employ lateral thinking to this problem Fox, would consider fire breaks being cut in the forest
in preparation of potential fires, and using old and current weather forecasts, determine the direction of the wind
and where to make the breaks.
nokton

Which is exactly what is done. So your point is????

It seems then, the fire breaks were ineffective due to faulty data, or the interpretation
of it.
nokton.

Or the condition's that the fire itself generates, as the flow of air around the fires will sometimes shift and change contrary what is predicted, due to flair ups, hotspots, and other internal elements of the blaze.

Originally Posted by Paleoichneum

Or the condition's that the fire itself generates, as the flow of air around the fires will sometimes shift and change contrary what is predicted, due to flair ups, hotspots, and other internal elements of the blaze.

Thanx for that Paleo understand, and stand corrected by you, appreciate.
nokton.

Yes, open fires are a lot more unpredictable than enclosed ones.although in enclosed situations,the biggest risk,on a plane,high,considering the potential fuel available.a quick solution is to smoother it asap.an open fire is at the mercy of more factors,particularly wind....amongst other variables,like heat intensity(increasing the propogation)

Originally Posted by Lynx_Fox

Sometimes the simplest solution will work wonders, such as tossing boxes of water balloons off the back of a cargo plane.

1. Drastic weight and balance factors might suggest fearsome threat to airplane.
2. Encapsulation of the water would carry it significantly ahead of free water. A fix for that: An immediate popping of launched balloons.
3. Fearsome threat to any boots on ground. Bad news for any buildings and vehicles.