Erickson Aircrane: intro, history and specs

When I started writing about aerial resources used to fight wildland fires six months ago, it did take me long before I saw pictures and videos of the Erickson Aircrane. The Erickson Aircrane is a type 1 helicopter (gross weight of more than 12,500 pounds, capable of carrying 11 to 16 passengers). The gross weight of the Erickson Air-Crane model S64-E is 42,000 pounds.

To provide a frame of reference, the Super Hueys that I wrote about recently are type 2 helicopters (gross weight up to 12,500 pounds, and/or carrying 8 to 10 passengers). The gross weight of H-301, one of CAL FIRE's super huey's is 10,500 pounds.

The Aircrane, when fitted with a fixed tank, is a helitanker. The Interagency Airtanker Board (IAB) establishes procedures and criteria for air tankers, helitankers, and tanks. According to section V (helitanker requirements)

helitankers shall be a Type 1 helicopter capable of lifting 1000 gallons of water at sea level (STP). Buckets will not be considered.

Erickson Aircrane has a very good web page chock full of information. The you tube video that I embedded above may also be found by clicking on the video link on their firefighting webpage (2nd video from the left).

This is the first of four or five posts that I will make about the Aircrane. Today I focus on history and specifications. In my next post, you will hear an Aero News TV interview with Kenny Chapman of Erickson. Among other things, Kenny describes the development of the Aircrane's fixed tank system and the Aircrane's firefighting capabilities.

Erickson has a web page where they write about the history of the Aircrane, here.

Specifications are shown in the image below for the two Aircrane models (accessed on June 8, 2009 from http://www.ericksonaircrane.com/index.php, design weights and performance page)