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T55 Big Wind

History

The T-34 and later T-55 “Big Wind” Tanks were developed by Hungarian engineers for the Kuwaiti oil fires in 1991 to extinguish particularly stubborn oil wells that were set ablaze by the retreating Iraqi military during the gulf war. Fitted with two engines taken from MiG-21s, large ammounts of water were injected into the jetstream to overpower the furiously burning wells. Over 43 days, Big Wind extinguished 9 fires.

Operation

Startup

• Enter the hull through either hatch on the front
  
• Flip the electrical breaker to supply power to the vehicle
  
• Sit in the driver's seat to turn on the main control panel or access it from the remote or turret stations
  
• Turn on the main engine by pressing "ENG" on any of the control displays
  
• The vehicle is now on and ready to drive

Controls

Control Selection

• The hull and turret can be controlled separately by the driver, radio, or turret
  
• Control options are found on all three control displays
  
• To change the control source of the hull, toggle the green selection indicator to "HULL" and cycle through to the desired source marked by red
  
• Turret controls are the same but the green indicator should be switched to "TURRET"

Driving

• Standard W/S & A/D buttons control the hull
  
• Pressing 1 or 2 will change the selected gear from -1 up to 2
  
• Gear -1 is reverse

Turret

• Arrow keys control the turret
  
• To start fighting a fire, First turn on the jet engines by pressing "JET ENG" on a control display. Once the jets are running, you can start water flow by pressing "PUMPS" on a control display.
  
• High flow is turned off by default to conserve the limited internal water storage. It can be turned on by pressing the respective button at any of the control stations.

Service

• Diesel and electric ports can be found on the left of the engine deck
  
• To fill the jet tank, disconnect one of the hoses from the jets and pump jet fuel into the turret from there
  
• Water can be fed directly to the turret on either side or the internal tank can be refilled from the rear
  
• Fire extinguishers can be found at the rear of the engine deck on both sides
  
• Welding torches are in the right stowage bin