Big Wind is a fire-fighting tank of the most special kind. The vehicle literally crushes fires with water power – thanks to aircraft engines.
How does a tank and a fighter jet become a fire extinguisher? When a university, the Hungarian armed forces, and an oil drilling company jointly seek a solution for a specific problem, something emerges that could easily roll over the battlefields of Warhammer 40K, namely Big Wind. The fire-fighting tank is the worst enemy of oil fires.
A Wall of Water
What is Big Wind made of? Big Wind is based on a T-62 tank from the 1960s. Instead of a turret with guns, engineers mounted two Tumanski R-11F-300 turbines on top. Such engines were also used in the MiG-21 interceptor – so one of a kind. Big Wind has two of them and does only one thing: blows out huge amounts of water with phenomenal force, which is sprayed from pipes into its jet stream.
What is an oil fire? An oil fire occurs when an oil well or a pressurized line ignites. The endless, pressurized stream of oil makes extinguishing difficult. Additionally, all metal becomes so hot that it ignites other materials upon contact.
How does Big Wind extinguish oil fires? The water masses practically create a hole in the inferno. They displace the air and cut off the supply of oil. And the vast amounts of water cool the surrounding area extensively to prevent re-ignition.
Storm in the Inferno
When was it deployed? The most famous deployment of the special fire brigade with their heavy equipment occurred in 1991. The first Gulf War was over, but the inferno was raging from the depths of the Kuwaiti oil fields.
Upon their retreat, the defeated Iraqi army left behind an inferno of hundreds of flames as they sabotaged oil lines. Flames then darkened the sky for miles and for days. Those who want to know more about this literally dark chapter can dive into the hell on earth with the following video:
The fire-fighting tank Big Wind needed only 12 to 40 seconds per fire in Kuwait, instead of many hours that would at best be achieved with traditional extinguishing methods.
Does Big Wind still extinguish fires? It could still do so, yes. But the last time the turbines roared was in 2000 due to a blowout of a natural gas well. The main drawback of it is the extremely expensive logistics and the gigantic amounts of water that have to be brought in separately. Because Big Wind blows, and nothing more. But it can do that so well that it would simply demolish and flush away a building that needs to be extinguished. Thus, apart from oil fires, there is no sensible application for it.
As long as there are no true disasters like those in Kuwait, the traditionally more time-consuming methods of firefighting are generally sufficient.
The firefighting giant is currently standing in a training facility in Szolnok, Hungary. You can find a video of a training session with it here on YouTube.
And if you are interested in devices, objects, or events that occur far from our everyday lives, we have a special tip for you: Researchers are currently facing a puzzle that reveals the limits of earthly physics research. We are receiving a signal from space every hour that should not actually exist.
