If your kids wanted to grow up to be firemen before today, wait till they get a load of this. Dubai has a reputation for going big. The city’s ebullience for the tallest buildings, lavish cars and technological fixation is making its way to the world of emergency services. – specifically firefighting and the need for consummate methods to do so with the aforementioned skyscrapers. Their answer lies with a New Zealand company started in 2008 called the Martin Aircraft Company and their upcoming line of EMS-focused personal jetpacks.
Earlier this year, the regrettably named Torch Tower, a 1,105 foot residential tower with over 600 housing units, caught fire which originated on the 50th floor. Despite strong winds and other complications it was luckily contained with only minor injuries, due to quick action by the Dubai fire department. It did however illustrate that things could have gone in a very different direction and ended off being a major disaster with significant loss of life.
In response, the Dubai Civil Defense has placed an order with Martin and the company is the process of adapting their current models for firefighter use to be delivered by early 2016.
“Dubai is leading the world in high-rises, and sometimes we have challenges or difficulties reaching those buildings. Sometimes we also find it difficult to communicate with people in those high-rises, especially when people are panicking from windows or balconies. With the jetpack we can go there and communicate physically with them and give them instructions.” – Dubai’s Civil Defence chief Ali Hassan Almutawa
The aforementioned adjustments to Martin’s current jetpack line-up will include a standing platform, placed between the propeller engines. This will allow the firemen pilots to let go of the controls and engage a hover mode. That will in turn make it possible to move around, interact with victims and handle equipment. Martin will also be expanding the project in hopes that their jetpacks will also be used for:
- Search and Rescue
- Disaster recovery
- Border security
- Surf Lifesaving
- Pipeline inspections
- Command and Control
- Other emergency services
Let us know in the comments just how much you regret going into some boring field (like blogging) instead of growing up to be an awesome jetpack firefighter like you wanted to as a kid.
[button link=”http://weburbanist.com/2015/11/24/dubai-commissions-fleet-of-jetpacks-to-fight-skyscraper-fires/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Web Urbanist[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
