Soon, water bombs to fight forest fires
London, Sept 17: Fires like those that ravaged Greece in August would be easier to combat if more and bigger aircraft could be used, unmodified, to drop water, a US timber company has said.
Weyerhaeuser has said it is developing 1.2-metre-wide PVC bags - each of which can hold 900 kilograms of water and fire retardant.
Each bag is packaged in a box whose lid becomes a parachute when the bag is pushed from a plane's cargo ramp.
Ripcords attached to the parachute then pull upwards, unzipping the bag and releasing the water at an altitude of about 70 metres, reports New Scientist.
Weyerhaeuser said while a C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry 16 such bags, the huge C-17 Globemaster III could double that. (With Inputs from ANI)
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