Random Ramblings: Aerial Wildland Firefighting

I have blogged about aerial wildland firefighting since 2009. I am not a firefighter and am not a pilot, just an interested bystander who wants to learn more and share what I learn here. Join me here as I blog on the aircraft and the pilots who fight wildland fires from the air in support of crews on the ground. I also blog on concerns affecting fire crews on the ground as well as other aviation and meteorology issues. Learn what it takes to do jobs that are staffed by the best of the best.

Monday, November 14, 2022

Sikorsky S-70i Fire Hawk helicopters revisited (1 of 2)

I suspect that many of you, especially those of you living on the west coast of the United States know about the Sikorsky S-70i Fire Hawk helicopters. Lockheedmartin has a nice webpage about the Fire Hawk saying that the Fire Hawk starts out as a Black Hawk. This web page has a video a walk around graphic and drawings of different configurations based on how the Fire Hawk is used (firefighter transport, water drops on fires, medical transport, search and rescue and humanitarian assistance).

Not only have I seen a number of videos of the S70i Fire Hawk, Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation has done his usual excellent job as he has written several articles on the S-70i Fire Hawk, go here to see his posts tagged as Sikorsky S-70-i. As you scroll through Bill's articles you will see reporting on agency purchases of the S-70i (see for example his May 2022 article on the delivery of a Fire Hawk to CAL Fire in Prado CA and his November 2022 article about Orange County California's purchase of two Fire Hawks) and an excellent article from March 12 2022 about the agreement between Sikorsky and United Rotor for the production of the Fire Hawk. Bill was reporting from the 2022 HAI Heli-Expo, he says in part

This week at HAI Heli-Expo Sikorsky and United Rotorcraft signed an agreement formalizing how the two companies will collaborate to produce Firehawk helicopters. These specialized aircraft are configured to assist wildland firefighters, dropping up to 1,000 gallons of water to slow the spread of a wildfire, allowing personnel on the ground to more safely move in and suppress the fire.

Bill goes on to say that

An S-70 Blackhawk aircraft becomes a Firehawk helicopter when United Rotorcraft adds a 1,000-gallon (3,785-liter) water tank system, a raised landing gear (to accommodate the tank), and associated integrated avionics, a process that typically takes six months. United Rotorcraft has been the Firehawk completion teammate of Sikorsky since the late 1990s working closely with Sikorsky and first customer County of Los Angeles Fire Department, which today operates two S-70i and three S-70A Firehawk aircraft. Other operators include CAL FIRE and the City of San Diego Fire-Rescue.

For any of you that want to dive deep into the Sikorsky S-70i Fire Hawk, I urge you again to check out Bill Gabbert's posts on the Sikorsky S-70-i as well his posts tagged Firehawk on his Fire Aviation site.

Finally, I leave you with two videos from Vertical Magazine from 2020. I first embedded these two videos in my June 19, 2020 post, I think they are worth seeing again so I am embedding them here for your convenience.

S-70i Fire Hawk avionics