IL-76P Fire Fighting Aircraft

The IL-76P aircraft is designed to fight fires by dumping extinguishing liquids on fire areas. The liquids dispenser can be mounted on any Il-76 transport without its extra retrofitting. Two VAP-2 tanks contain 42,000 litres of water or special extinguishing liquids. The tanks are attached to the cargo hold floor by the organic mooring chains. A four-person team can load and moor one tank within 1.5 to 2 hours. It takes 10-12 minutes to fill the VAP tanks with the extinguishing liquid.


The IL-76P aircraft is capable of dumping 40,000 litres of water from an altitude of 50 m in four seconds. Dumped consecutively or simultaneously from two tanks at the airspeed of 280 km/h and the altitude of 80 m, water covers an area of 600x80 m with the density exceeding five litres per square metre in the centre and gradually decreasing towards the periphery. In about eight seconds all water can be dumped from both tanks.

One IL-76P employed intermittently for three to four hours against a strong ground-level forest fire on an area of 50 hectares can reduce firefront expansion rate by two to three times. The most efficient technique consists in employing two to three IL-76P aircraft in turns to deliver the OS-5 extinguishing liquid. Firefighting operations can be started by new line unit crews after only a short training course.

IL-76P Specifications
Water dispersing speed, km/h 260-400
Water dispersing altitude, m 50-100
VAP tanks total capacity, m3 40,000
Covered zone length, m
with the extinguishant density
on the ground of over 2 L/m2 450-900

Posted in: RUSSIA AIR FORCE