Aerial Firefighting Europe 2022
Innovative Australian Design Helping To Fight Fires All Over The World By Jennifer Swaine As a qualified engineer and helicopter pilot who had faced off against many bushfires, Jason Schellaars understood the limitations of firefighting tanks on the market at the time. That understanding, coupled with his engineering background, would lead Schellaars to Found Helitak to create a solution that would help helicopter pilots drop large loads of water onto bushfires in a controllable and precise manner. As he saw it, there were two issues that, if solved, would increase the effectiveness of water delivery on fires from helicopters during firefighting operations. The first problem was associated with the limited space a helicopter has beneath the belly of the helicopter and where AF 44 | aerialfiremag.com
the skids contact the ground, which meant that a traditional underbelly fire tank could only carry the water the tank could hold. Yet many of the helicopters Schellaars was flying at the time had weight and balance potential to carry a far greater load. As Schellaars set about finding a solution that would allow a helicopter to carry more water, he also solved the second problem on his list. Flat tanks quickly ran out of ‘head pressure,’ which meant controlling the drop became a challenge. Over the ensuing years, Jason developed the Helitak expandable fire suppression tank, which solves both issues for helicopter operators engaged in fighting fires.
