Ask HN: Next Gen, Slow, Heavy Lift Firefighting Aircraft Specs?

[westurner]

How can new and existing firefighting aircraft, land craft, seacraft, and other capabilities help fight fire; in California at present and against the new climate enemy?

[westurner]

- Spec: [Firefighting] Aircraft should have Drone ID receivers, perhaps integrated with ADS-B

[westurner]

# Next-Gen Firefighting Aircraft (working title: NGFFA)

## Roadmap

- [ ] Brainstorm challenges and solutions; new sustainable approaches and time-tested methods

- [ ] Write a grant spec

- [ ] Write a legislative program funding request

## Challenges

- Challenge: Safety; Risk to personnel and civilians

- Challenge: Diving into fire is dangerous for the human aircraft operator

- Challenge: Vorticity due to fire heat; fire CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)

-- The verticals that updraft and downdraft off a fire are dangerous for pilots and expensive, non-compostable aircraft.

- Challenge: Water drifts away before it hits the ground due to the release altitude, wind, and fire air currents

- Challenge: Water shortage

- Challenge: Water lift aircraft shortage

- Task: Pour thousands of gallons (or Canadian litres) of water onto fire

- Task: Pour a line, a circle, or other patterns to contain fire

- Task: Process seawater quickly enough to avoid property damage with untreated ocean salt water, for example

https://www.google.com/search?q=fluid+vorticity+fire+plane

## Solutions

- Are Quadcopters (or n-copters) more stable than helicopters or planes in high-wind fire conditions?

- Fire CFD modeling for craft design.

- Light, durable aerospace-grade hydrogen vessels

- Intermodally transportable containers

- Are there stackable container-sized water vessels for freight transport?

- Floating, towable seawater processing and loading capability.

-- Process seawater for: domestic firefighting, disaster relief,

-- Fill vessels at sea.

- "Starlite" as a flame retardant; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlite

- starlite youtuber #Replication FWIU: [ cornstarch, flour, sugar, borax ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlite#Replication

- Notes re: "xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition" (2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35658214

- Hydrogels, Aerogels

- (Hemp) Aerogels absorb oil better than treated polyurethane foam and hair.

- EV fire blanket, industry cartridge spec

- Non-flammable batteries; unpressurized Sodium Ion, Proton batteries, Twisted Carbon Nanotube batteries

- Compostable batteries

- Cloud seeding and firefighting

## Reference material

- Aerial firefighting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_firefighting

- Aerial firefighting > Comparison table of fixed-wing, firefighting tanker airplanes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_firefighting#Comparison...