Aircraft rescue fire fighting (ARFF) vehicles are used to extinguish fires occurring at civilian airports and military airfields. The ARFF vehicles are often used as military crash rescue equipment. FIG. 1 illustrates an ARFF vehicle 10 including a body 12, tires 14, a roof turret 16, and a bumper turret 18. Because of the remote location of runways and the size of the aircraft, the ARFF vehicle 10 typically carries a large amount of water and foamant onboard. The roof turret 16 and the bumper turret 18 are used to extinguish the fire, while the ARFF vehicle 10 is moving to enable a fast first response, called a “pump and roll” operation. Fire extinguishing systems of the ARFF vehicle 10 are generally capable of operating at pressures ranging from 100 to 300 PSI requiring high flow rates of water and foamant. To satisfy these high flow rates, the ARFF vehicle 10 generally carries 1,000 gallons of water and an additional 130 gallons of foamant. Because of the volume and the weight of the onboard water and foamant, the body 12 and the tires 14 are typically larger than on fire trucks used for residential fires. Additionally, the ARFF vehicle 10 includes an elevated ground clearance 20 in order to pass over debris surrounding the crash site.
The size of the ARFF vehicle 10 can become a problem when the ARFF vehicle must be transported on cargo aircrafts, such as a C130. In order to be transported in a cargo aircraft, the air pressure in the tires 14 must be lowered and the turrets 16, 18 must be removed. Even then, only one ARFF vehicle 10 at a time can be transported.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds