The Airbus Poland Air Services Division from Mielec won contracts for fire protection in 2021 for forest areas administered by nine regional Directorates of State Forests: from Białystok, Gdańsk, Katowice, Lublin, Olsztyn, Poznań, Radom, Warsaw and Wrocław, through a tender conducted by the General Directorate of State Forests (GDLP).
AIRBUS POLAND AIRCRAFT WILL AGAIN PROTECT POLISH FORESTS
Airbus Poland will provide 18 aircraft type M-18B Dromader with pilots and technical staff .The machines and the crews will be ready to operate for seven months, when the threat of forest fires in Poland is greatest – in the season from March to September 2021.
Moreover, the contract stipulates that if necessary, the aircraft operating in the area will be adapted to spray the forests with pest control agents.
The Aviation Services Division in Mielec has 25 aircraft M-18B Dromader in agro/fire version, used for spraying forests against insect pests and extinguishing fires.
In 2020, Airbus crews participated in a week-long (19–24 April 2020) firefighting of the Biebrza National Park for the Regional Directorate of State Forests in Bialystok.
M-18B aircraft in its the overloaded version takes 2.2 tons of water, which it can drop in the form of a water bomb, covering an area of 25x70m or use the so-called retting flap (hydraulically controlled) – then they “lay” water insulation strips over a length of 400 × 5 m. The Mielec Airbus Division employs 31 pilots and 29 aircraft mechanics.