Firefighting airmen get upgrade after 34 years

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A C-130 assigned to the 145th Airlift Wing, North Carolina Air National Guard, drops 3,000 gallons of water using Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System during the MAFFS 2008 annual certifying event. The upgraded MAFFS II that firefighting units will receive this fall can carry 400 more gallons and shoot fluid with greater pressure.


Firefighting airmen get upgrade after 34 years
By Seamus O’Connor - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 14, 2008 21:56:38 EDT

This summer is likely to be a busy wildfire season, but the airmen who fight those fires from the air are getting a major equipment upgrade.

Since 1974, airmen in the Guard and Reserve have battled fires with the Modular Airborne Firefighting System, a 3,000-gallon tank that disperses flame retardant liquid through a pair of nozzles. The systems are mounted in C-130s and drop their payloads out the rear loading dock.

By late fall, though, the four units that operate MAFFS are expected to transition to the MAFFS II, a long-delayed project featuring numerous improvements. The MAFFS II includes a tank that carries 400 more gallons, and a nozzle that shoots retardant with greater pressure and velocity out of a sealed portal on the plane’s left side. That means the plane can fly pressurized, and the crew and tail fin won’t get soaked by the fluid as it drops.

The MAFFS II will also allow airmen to disperse up to eight separate drops of fluid, five more than the older MAFFS.

The new system may also lead to safer flights for firefighting airmen, who must make drops at altitudes between 150 and 200 feet.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/05/airforce_fire_maffs_051408/