April 2015 African Pilot 43to the airframe, instrumentation and payload were made making the
Aircrane the perfect aerial crane.
A 10,000 litre tank attachment able to deliver up to 113,500 litres of
water, foam and retardant mix an hour combined with the manoeuvring
and pin point precision drop pattern of a helicopter makes the Aircrane
the ideal fi re fi ghting machine available.
Besides remanufacturing existing CH-54 Tahres, Erickson’s new Aircranes
have been sold to the Italian and Korean Forest Services whilst those in the
Erickson fl eet are leased worldwide on short or long term fi re suppression,
civil protection, heavy lift construction and timber harvesting contracts.
All Erickson Aircranes are given individual names. The most famous of
them all is ‘Elvis’ who during the 2001 series of wild fi res in Australia
was one of the fi rst and certainly the largest helicopter called in to fi ght
the fi res. Elvis arrived in Melbourne on 27 December 2001 and was
immediately deployed to Bankstown, New South Wales to help with fi re
fi ghting efforts in the Sydney region.
Two other Aircranes namely Georgia Peach and the Incredible Hulk
were rushed out from the U.S.A on board a Russian Antonov An-124
air freighter to assist.
During her stint in Australia, Elvis saved more than 1,500 homes and the
lives of 14 fi re-fi ghters and she became a national celebrity. A number of
other Aircranes and Skycranes have subsequently been brought out to
Australia for each bushfi re season and are based in Western Australia,
Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
Three Aircranes have been lost during fi re fi ghting operations. In 2004,
Aurora crashed in Corsica whilst fi re fi ghting on the Mediterranean
Island. Gypsy Lady crashed during October 2006 whilst operating for
the United States Fire Service when she snagged a dip tank. In 2007,
Shirley Jean crashed in Italy.
Erickson Air-Crane is the sole manufacturer and world’s largest operator
of S-64 Aircranes.
General characteristics:
Crew: 3 (pilot, co-pilot), plus one engineer
or rear-facing observer
Capacity: up to fi ve people
Payload: 20,000 lb (9,072 kg)
Length: 70 feet 3 in (21.41 m (fuselage))
Rotor diameter: 72 feet 0 in (21.95 m)
Height: 18 feet 7 in (5.67 m)
Disc area: 4070 feet² (378.1 m²)
Empty weight: 19,234 lbs (8,724 kg)
Max. take-off weight: 42,000 lbs (19,050 kg)
Power plants: two × Pratt & Whitney JFTD12-4A (T73-P-1)
turbo shaft engines, 4,500 shp (3,555 kW) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 109 knots (126 mph, 203 km/h)
Cruise speed: 91 knots (105 mph, 169 km/h)
Range: 200 nmi (230 mi, 370 km) max fuel
and reserves
Rate of climb: 1,330 feet/min (6.75 m/s)