I would like to share a firefighting technology which recently occurred to me. It seems so simple that someone must have stumbled upon it before now, and yet internet searches have all come up dry. I have therefore chosen to throw it out here, and see what people think.
In short, it is a firefighting hose, the dispersal end of which has been attached to a helicopter. Due to its elevation, a powerful pump would be needed to gather water from the lake, ocean, sea, or fire hydrant which served as the hose's source. By some rudimentary calculations, with a helicopter hovering 30 meters above the blaze pumping 1500 gallons/hr of water from a 0.5 efficiency source, about 100 kilowatt hours of perpetual pumping power would be required.
As I previously stated, I was shocked not to find this technology in active development. As far as I can tell, helicopters disperse water only one small and ineffectual bucket at a time when fighting fires. If anyone reading these words either knows of this technique, or can explain why it is not feasible, please do not hesitate to leave a comment.
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