Airport firefighting

They are usually forgotten, as they tend to see a lot less action than non-airport bound firefighters, but boy, do they have cool equipment to play with! Airport fire departments have some very tight performance parameters, basically, because when a huge piece of aluminium, titanium, passengers and fuel crashes and ignites on or near a runway, every second counts. That’s the reason this 40-ton baby accelerates from 0 to 80 Km/h (50mph) in around 25 seconds. In proportion to weight, this is faster than a 1997 McLaren F1, which hits 100 Km/h (60mph) in 3.3 seconds!
The Rosenbauer Panther 8×8 MA5 airport and rescue firefighting vehicle. Sporting a 1000 hp engine (yes, that is not a typo), it carries 12.5 tons of water, 1.5 tons of foam liquid, and up to 1 ton of NP powder. Full specs here. Up to three monitors (two mounted at the front, one top) give it a range from 25 meters up to 85 meters, all controlled from the cabin with joysticks and cameras. At 11 bars of pressure, the top monitor can empty the water tank in two minutes. The cabin controls look like something out of Star Wars.
Note the complex MFD control system for the hydraulics – so much for turning a wheel and having water come out a hose, right? While I did part-time work at Southend Airport, I was able to ride and operate a much smaller, much simpler, but equally fun Carmichael truck. Will post a pic when I find it and scan it (film rolls back then, the only thing digital in cameras was your finger).