COATESVILLE, Penn.,
July 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, has delivered an S-70
Black Hawk helicopter to the City of San
Diego Fire-Rescue Department. When modified by a third party
as a FIREHAWK® helicopter with a 1,000-gallon belly
tank, retractable snorkel, extended landing gear and rescue hoist,
the City of San Diego will have a
multirole platform with the speed to more quickly find and
extinguish wildfires, perform rescue missions, and deliver initial
medical care across the city and neighboring counties.
"The Black Hawk is a game changer in its primary role of fire
suppression in support of ground firefighting crews," said
San Diego Fire-Rescue Air
Operations Chief Chuck Macfarland
during the June 27 ceremony to accept
the aircraft at Sikorsky's facility in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. "Never before has
the City of San Diego operated as
large and as powerful a helicopter as the Black Hawk, which can
accurately place almost three times more water on a wildland fire
in a single drop than our current fleet. By hitting wildland fires
aggressively in their initial stage, we will be able to keep fires
small."
Ahead of its modifications into the FIREHAWK configuration in
2019, San Diego Fire-Rescue will press the new helicopter into
aerial firefighting service later this year using an 850-gallon
internal tank.
The S-70 Black Hawk helicopter has the engine power to carry
over 4 US tons of water, and will operate with safe power margins
in hot temperatures at high altitudes. The aircraft's high strength
and corrosion resistant airframe significantly reduces maintenance
costs.
Said Joe Palumbo, Sikorsky
international military programs director: "Aerial firefighting is a
strenuous mission for any helicopter and its crew, but this third
generation Hawk platform has the proven military pedigree and
reliability to endure the tremendous physical stresses of
acquiring, carrying and dropping large amounts of water repeatedly
throughout the course of a day or night's firefighting operations.
We welcome San Diego to the Black
Hawk family, and wish the Fire-Rescue Department success during the
aircraft's decades-long mission to save lives and property."
The S-70 aircraft's advanced digital cockpit takes on many of
the aircraft's flight functions, allowing the pilot to pre-program
and manage the mission while adjusting flight parameters, such as
speed, precision hover, heading and altitude, as needed. A digital
moving map shows the pilot the aircraft's precise location and
destination at all times.
Among its standard safety features, the S-70 aircraft includes
an Integrated Vehicle Health Management System to monitor the
aircraft's operational health, and a terrain and obstacle avoidance
system that alerts aircrew to the proximity of potential ground
hazards.
In addition to its principal mission of wildland fire
suppression, San Diego's FIREHAWK
aircraft can insert rescue medics, and hoist patients into the
cabin for treatment and transport to a nearby hospital.
The City of San Diego is the
second municipality in southern California in the past year to procure the
S-70 aircraft for aerial firefighting and other life-saving
missions. In December 2017,
Los Angeles County Fire Department
added two S-70i helicopters to its fleet of three existing FIREHAWK
helicopters. In May, the California Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection (CAL FIRE) selected the
FIREHAWK platform to replace its older aerial firefighting
helicopters.
Learn more information about the FIREHAWK helicopter.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a
global security and aerospace company that employs approximately
100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the
research, design, development, manufacture, integration and
sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
This year the company received three Edison Awards for
ground-breaking innovations in autonomy, satellite technology and
directed energy.
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SOURCE Lockheed Martin