this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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Cranes, trains, planes and excavators and stuff like that

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Big Wind - The most powerful fire engine of the world: 2 MIG-21 jet engines mounted on a T-34 tank base (media.techeblog.com)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/cranetrainexcavators
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It's for extinguishing oil well fires, owned and developed by MOL, the Hungarian oil conglomerate. It was used in Kuwait after the Kuwait-Iraq war, here is a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGDxglTVgA

It's still in use and maintained, the base was replaced with newer tank recently, as it was hard to find replacement parts for such an old model.

Video from some years ago, timestamped, there is a lot of Hungarian narration before that point: https://youtu.be/YYF8YQ7pLng?feature=shared&t=494

Good article in English about this beast, with a lot more images: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/a-firefighter-s-dream-meet-big-wind-a-tank-with-jet-engines-that-s-a-fire-truck-185011.html#

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[–] cmbabul 10 points 10 months ago

I know the Shagohad when I see it

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Some more facts:

  • Development started in 1984, it was first used in 1991, the Kuwait deployment was its first job
  • The new base is from a VT-55, a modified version of the T-55 tank
  • Max allowed speed is 5 km/h
  • It can carry 3000 liters of jet fuel. That's enough for 30 minutes of extinguishing
  • The nozzles can add 16000 liters of water per minute
[–] d00ery 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I was going to correct you where you say "3000 litres of jet fuel as I was thinking water would be better for spraying! Then I remembered about the jet engines .. 😅

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Actually water is used only for cooling the surroundings. The fire is extinguished by the air current, the same principle as you blow a candle, but at a different scale, it would work without water, but the heat could reignite the gas.

Water is piped from local reservoirs. This was a problem in Kuwait, where oil wells are in the desert. The advantage of this design was it uses much less water than other fire engines.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

Thing legit looks like a Transformer.

[–] Chocrates 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I saw this thing work in the documentary about the Kuwaiti oil fires the first time I ever went to an IMAX theatre. For some reason that has stuck in my mind for nearly 30 years.

[–] gorlak 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fires of Kuwait: https://youtu.be/-tUzkF_Dp8M?si=IAOPnoawFrygw0jH

at about the 20m mark.

[–] Chocrates 3 points 10 months ago

Thank you!

[–] Thade780 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Typo in the title. It's a T34.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Thanks, fixed

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Typo in your correction. It's a T1000.

BA DUM BUM BUM BA DUM BUM!!!!

Talk to the hand

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

This looks like it belongs in the command and conquer series... https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Flame_tank_(Tiberian_Dawn)

[–] chellomere 4 points 10 months ago

Found Wall-E's chunky brother

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

i choose to believe this is what conspiracy nuts refer to when they say things like "That's lies spread by Big Wind"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I know where they can find replacement parts

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I could use one of these for candles at a birthday party.