20t Water Drops at 150ft/125kt

At a time when widespread and increasingly uncontrollable wildfires are sweeping though parts of Australia, North America and southern Europe, Airbus has tested a removable firefighting installation on the A400M.

The test campaign took place in daylight conditions, with a minimum operating height of 150ft, flight speeds as low as 125kt and drops involving up to 20t of water from the current tank in under 10sec. The main objective is to validate the drop water quantity and timing, as well as the ability of the A400M to carry out this new role with the kit.

Development and testing have been carried out in close collaboration with the Spanish Air Force, European authorities in firefighting operations and Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO). “The development of this firefighting kit is an intrinsic part of our journey towards helping to create a more sustainable and safer world, not only by our actions but also through our products. We strongly believe the A400M can play a vital role in the fight against the ever increasing threat posed by wildfires and support the restoration of social and environmental systems,” said Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space.

The solution created for the A400M is a roll-on/roll-off kit that requires no modification to the aircraft and therefore is interchangeable to any aircraft in the fleet. The water is stored in a fixed tank in the cargo hold, and retained by two independent doors. These doors are connected to two flood pipes, so when the discharge is triggered, the water is expelled through two sections at the end of the ramp. The solution allows for rapid reaction to unforeseen fires and swift reconfiguration of the aircraft to any of its other roles.

Due to its low level flight capability and manoeuvrability at low speeds, the A400M can accurately drop payloads of water at very low heights, down to 150ft. Future tests will investigate the efficiency of such operations at night.