Big Wind firefighting jet tank

[Jon]

Big Wind is a firefighting tank, made from a WWII-era T-34 Soviet tank, with two MiG-21 jet engines mounted to its roof. Its primary use is putting out oil well fires.



Although Big Wind does shoot water, its main method of extinguishing fires is by blowing them out with jet engine exhaust. It was constructed by Hungarian engineers, and builds on an old Russian trick of extinguishing oil well fires with a jet engine mounted to a truck.

Each jet engine produces around 27,000 pounds of thrust, and the tank also sprays water at around 220 gallons per second.



Big Wind was notably used in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. Saddam Hussein's army, retreating in defeat, set hundreds of oil wells on fire, in a literal scorched-earth tactic. This sparked a legitimate environmental catastrophe, and an opportunity to show off Big Wind's ability.

[PJs]

All I can say is Wow...glad they made that thing. Looks like an Autobot. It's a most impressive add-on.

[mklotz]

I always thought Red Adair's procedure of dangling an explosive charge over the fire and detonating it was a bit primitive, not to mention damn dangerous. This makes far more sense. He didn't spend enough time in the shower thinking the problem through.

[blkadder]

I recall seeing one of these while I was deployed overseas. It was interesting to see how they adapted the two very different generations of fighting vehicles. The first pictures I saw of one of these was in use on a runway at one of the Soviet air bases located near the Ural mountains. It seems they used it to keep the runways free of ice and snow.

[Frank S]

My first trip to Kuwait was in 91 when the fires were still burning. No Red Adair's method was not as primitive as you may think but his company had more than one method of putting out the fires as did a few of the other companies there fighting those horrendous fire. With hundreds of wells set ablaze it was all hands on deck from many countries. Almost anyone who could help put out a fire was involved and submitted their methods. some worked better than others some worked faster than others. but when so many wells were on fire very few solutions were rejected. I was first projected that it could take as much as a decade to quench all of the fires and get the infrastructure back up and functioning. At one time they worried that these fires could go subterranean and burn all of the oil that was still under ground.
Blowing them out with powerful jet engine exhaust using explosives dangled from a lattice boom and dropping 10 to 20 ton concrete cones over the wells even trying suicide runs at a well with bull dozers were parts of the methods One idea that was rejected was to clear the area for 200 miles and drop a hydrogen bomb right in the middle of the whole shebang, which would have extinguished all of the flames but at the same time would have rendered it impossible for reclamation and recovery.

[Jon]

Not exactly sure what we have here. Captioned as "capping a flaming oil well".

[Jon]

I believe this is actually the correct and safest procedure. Anyone know?

[Frank S]

In 1991 in Kuwait,there were dozens of companies from all over the world assisting in extinguishing and bringing the approximate 800 well head fires and damaged well heads under control.
Sometimes it was prudent to actually set a gushing well a blaze to burn off the more volatile gasses while preparing to place a suitable cap on the well the fires would be extinguished again just before whatever device was used to stop the flow.
It seemed counter productive to me, but hey fortunately I was just there to work not to run things. the fires and wells were all extinguished and caped in a much shorter time than anyone could have hoped. When I went back in 2003 much of the land was still blackened from the spilled oil but by 2013 a lot of that baron land was growing many desert plant species

[MeJasonT]

John Wayne as Big Red

[MeJasonT]

Baku, still looks like a disaster zone. busted lada's (cars used as motors to run pumps), collapsed nodding donkeys and derricks all over the place. You don't even need a cordless drill to hit oil its oozing out of the ground.