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 9 months ago* (last edited 9 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 9 months ago

I know the Shagohad when I see it

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

Thing legit looks like a Transformer.

[–] Chocrates 8 points 9 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 9 months ago (1 children)

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

at about the 20m mark.

[–] Chocrates 3 points 8 months ago

Thank you!

[–] Thade780 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Typo in the title. It's a T34.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Thanks, fixed

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 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 9 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 9 months ago

Found Wall-E's chunky brother

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 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 9 months ago

I know where they can find replacement parts

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

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