When you’re a kid, fire trucks are amazing and most kids wanted to be firemen and women when they grew up. As adults, most people shy away from dangerous jobs and the fireman dream fades away. Although, what was amazing to kids – the local city fire truck, there is another kind of fire truck that is nothing less than incredibly amazing to adults. It’s called the ‘Big Wind’.
Imagine the power and force of a MiG-21fighter jet’s engine, and then times that by two. Now, mount those two engines on a vintage T34 tank from World War II. No, the engines are not to propel the tank forward, the jet engines are instead aimed at a fire, a really ‘BIG’ fire. If you’re not sure what will happen, let’s just say the Big Wind jet engine fire truck blows out fires like a candle in the… big wind.
The idea was born during the days when Iraqi forces sacked Kuwait, and lit the oil fields on fire. So, you can imagine the types of fires this ‘thing’ blows out. Right above each jet engine are water pipes which pump 220 gallons per second into the jets’ exhaust and then it is directed at fires. Thanks to a team of Hungarian engineers that designed the Big Wind, it’s basically the world’s largest wind machine/water cannon, and it’s amazing to both small and ‘big’ kids.
Source – BadAssOfTheWeek
