Dan McInerney found this interesting article on the world’s tallest firefighting aerial:
There must be a good reason you’d be in an open air basket 367 feet above the ground. Besides hot air ballooning, you might be standing in a Bronto S-112 HLA, repairing hunchback damage atop the world’s most famous cathedral.
GIZMODO.com photo
Whether you’re comparing it to the Amiens Cathedral or the whole of the Fighting Irish—stacked atop one another—the Bronto S-112 HLA is still the tallest. Built by Finnish manufacturer Bronto, the S-112 HLA (High Level Articulated) holds the world record for highest reaching basket lift. And it doesn’t just go up. By optimizing its height-to-weight ratio and using a high tensile steel boom structure, it can bend the crane arm at a 90° angle, 290 feet up (~26 stories), and extend out to a working radius of 82 feet—roughly the length of three Minke Whales or two 72-person school buses. This allows crews to reach otherwise inaccessibly high areas, like the underside exterior of a wind turbine rotor.
Obviously, in order for a basket to rise that high, it needs an incredibly stable base. That’s why the lifting assembly is mounted on a Mercedes Benz model 76.60 9-axle commercial truck chassis, with five steered and four driven axles. The entire rig weighs a sturdy 75000 kg, about 82 tons or two Doosan Moxy Articulated Dump Trucks. It also uses an automatic levelling system that sets up in under a minute (because we need that cat out of the tree ten minutes ago!) and a Telecontrol system with an visual interactive display.
The S-112 HLA in action at the Inter-2010 in Leipzig:
Bronto Skylift’s High Level Articulated Range represents the ultimate in high rise rescue and fire fighting capability. It’s a perfect choice for fire brigades in metropolitan cities. ??Superior vertical and horizontal outreach at all heights, fast and safe operations and integrated corrosion-resistant waterway are the main advantages of the HLA range. Built on a standard truck chassis the HLA unit remains flexible and compact and can reach emergency sites using ordinary roads and streets. With the autojacking function, the unit is fully stabilized for rescue in just 40 seconds and the rescue proceeds quickly from the height of 33 floors. ??At the moment the range covers the working heights from 81 to 112 meters. ??Download the brochure
