Fire Boss, a specialized amphibious aircraft system developer, has secured FAA approval on a number of engineering changes that save its aircraft more than 125 pounds and shift the center of gravity.
The company announced more than 11 engineering tweaks related to everything from the relocation of the hydraulic pump to higher-altitude scooping capabilities. The most important update involves a new supplemental type certificate (STC) that allows for the inclusion of the True Blue Power TB60 lithium-ion battery, which reduces weight by 70 pounds and produces 90 percent less environmental waste than lead batteries, according to Fire Boss.
“These changes are a pivotal step in our ongoing effort to improve our products and enhance mission-critical performance for operators,” said Jon Backes, vice president of marketing and sales at Wipaire, which is the No. 1 manufacturer of aircraft floats worldwide and includes Fire Boss among its family of brands.
Fire Boss is the developer of the amphibious scooping system for the Air Tractor AT-802F, allowing the aircraft to scoop up around 800 gallons of water in 15-30 seconds. An aerial firefighting behemoth, the aircraft can deliver its payload and quickly return to the water source to resupply, so it can drop up to 14,000 gallons per hour.
The system utilizes the single-engine air tanker (SEAT) concept that allows the aircraft to directly resupply from the environment as opposed to more traditional tankers that must return to an airfield to be refueled.
The Air Tractor was originally developed as a crop dusting aircraft for agricultural operations in the 1990s before being retrofitted as a firefighting unit with the Fire Boss system.
Manufactured in South St. Paul, Minnesota, the Fire Boss system boasts more than 180 units in operation across six continents and is currently the only fixed-wing aerial firefighting platform in production.
