Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
Connecticut's Bradley International has fielded the "Snozzle", a firefighting device manufactured by Crash Rescue Equipment Service of Dallas, Texas, and mounted on one of the airport's two new fire trucks .
The Snozzle's adjustable boom can apply fire retardants on hard-to-reach aircraft areas, concentrating firefighting agents directly on fires, discharging half as much as typical firefighting equipment. The Snozzle also features a piercing nozzle which is able to attack internal aircraft fires, with a probe which can easily penetrate the wall of an aircraft.
Once inside the aircraft cavity, a forward-looking infra-red (FLIR) camera made by Raytheon TI Systems locates any remaining passengers while pinpointing the exact position of the fire, regardless of the amount of smoke. The images are transmitted to a television monitor on board the fire truck. The Snozzle is installed during production of new fire trucks or can be retrofitted on existing equipment.
The Snozzle is among several new firefighting devices now available or in development. The US Federal Aviation Administration is testing the Driver's Enhanced Vision System (DEVS) which combines satellite navigation, digital datalink and infra-red technologies.
Using the DEVS, rescue workers can evaluate aircraft condition, spot spilled and burning fuel, and locate survivors and emergency equipment at the scene.
The system uses differential global-positioning-system data to keep track of rescue vehicles and a FLIR for seeing through obscurant. Northrop Grumman's Aircraft Rescue Micro-FLIR is part of the DEVS.
Source: Flight International
