US firm designs airship to rain on forest fires
Date: 20-Jun-02
Country: UK
The 300-metre (1000-ft) propeller-powered airship would be capable of carrying just under a million litres (220,000 gallons) of water and could be refilled from other aircraft.
"It will be like having a non-stop artificial rainstorm," Ralph Pope, of Wetzone Engineering in Huntingdon Beach, California, told New Scientist magazine yesterday.
The airship will be ready in about three years.
"Adjustable valves on the underside of the balloon - much like large shower heads - will pump out a staggering 200,000 litres an hour over a large area of the fire," the magazine said.
The biggest planes used to fight the massive fires now sweeping Colorado, in the United States, carry about 13,000 litres on a single trip and must fly dangerously low. Helicopters carry up to 600 litres.
Employees at Wetzone Engineering are working on a prototype. In addition to fighting fires the airship could also be used to replant the forest.
Once the fire is out the crew could drop soil and fertiliser from the airship and use the fire-fighting equipment to water seedlings.