Hi everyone,

In recent years, the wildfires have become longer and more severe. The fire fighting crew have to work in tougher and more dangerous scenarios of blaze and smoke. I dedicate this Heavy Firefighting Helicopter design to all wildfire fighting members, air crew and aircraft maintenance staff all over the world.

The most difficult part is integrating the fuselage with a rotor head strong enough to hold the long rotor blades. I have to work with limited dimension and beware of the related engine part integration. I planned to use thin landing gear legs (a single axle) to support the fuselage load (weight: ~1.6kg, dimension: 66.4cm x 78.1cm) but they bent outward in the physical build.

After a week’s trial and error testing, the landing gear structure design has been revamped in order to hold the fuselage and landing gear leg intact. The fuselage load has been dispersed across an internal frame and the landing gear structures are locked with axles. It is strong enough to roll and even taxi on a flat platform with the turnable front landing gear wheel.

The final design has been built physically and the display stand is strong enough to hold the aircraft.

I hope you may enjoy my Heavy Firefighting Helicopter.

Thank you.