OSHKOSH, Wisconsin -- Spend enough time hanging out by the runways at the AirVenture aviation show here and you see so many cool aircraft taking off and landing that you start to lose track of what's what. But when Elvis flew in, everyone knew exactly what they were looking at.
As you'd expect of something called Elvis, the bright orange Erickson S-64F Aircrane Helitanker figherfighter made the coolest entry of the day. As awesome as it looked coming it, it looked even more so dousing the runway with water before touching down.
The Aircrane is a monster: 69 feet long and 25 feet tell with landing gear 21 feet wide. The rotor diameter is 72 feet. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney JFTD12-5A turboshaft engines -- each generating 4,800 shaft horsepower -- the Aircrane can hold 1,350 gallons of fuel and cruises at just over 100 mph. It's got a range of 292 miles and a ceiling of 14,000 feet.
Firefighting is the name of the game for Elvis. The chopper's tanks hold up to 2,650 gallons of water or foam and can be filled in less than 45 seconds from any water source more than 18 inches deep. The Aircrane is much loved in Australia, where it has been pressed into service every year since 2000 to fight catastrophic wildfires. The copter has saved up to 1,500 homes in Australia, and a single strategic water drop is credited with saving the lives of 14 firefighers trapped on a flaming mountaintop.
If anything can stop a raging forest fire in its tracks and draw stares at an aviation show packed with cool stuff, it's Elvis. More pix after the jump.
Photos: Jason Paur / Wired.com
