Vehicle manufacturer Rosenbauer recently received a significant order from the Saudi Arabian Civil Aviation Authority. The deliveries will stretch over five years and the first vehicles will be handed over at the end of 2009. The order consists of 10 Panther 8x8 air crash tenders, and 52 6x6 Panther crashtenders for different airports all over the country.

In the preliminary stage before the order was placed, Rosenbauer had to prove scientifically that its trucks would fulfil the requirements of the ICAO regulations in terms of response time and performance, explains Wolfram Muecke, Vice President International Sales for Rosenbauer. “We had to work out a master plan with interchangeable units, and had to prepare a full optimisation programme to keep the fleet within reasonable numbers, so we did not maximise our supply by adding vehicles which are not really necessary. In addition, we had to ensure that all the engines were interchangeable to facilitate logistics support and training.”

The cabins of the Panther 8x8 and the 6x6 all look identical, and the same goes for the dashboard and controls, simplifying training and operation, because this means crew can operate both the 6x6 and 8x8 vehicles when required, without any need for re-training. All firefighting components are also standardised as much as possible, to facilitate the easy fitting of spare parts and interchangeability.

The difference between the 6x6 and the 8x8 lies in the pump capacity. Where the N-100 pump, fitted on the 8x8, has a flow of 10,000 lpm, the 6x6 units carry a 6,000 lpm pump. The water tank on the 8x8 unit has a capacity 16,800 litres and it should be able to discharge the tank volume within two minutes. For cat 10, an airport would need a minimum of three vehicles to comply with ICAO regulations, meaning that if one vehicle is unavailable the extinguishing liquid capacity to fulfill the regulation is still there.

“These vehicles are specified according to our standard configuration and we are trying to keep them fairly standard. These are not toys for boys – we are trying to keep the configuration simple, so that they do not ask for special skills or knowledge from the operators. Reliability is key in this matter, as well as keeping these vehicles in line with international standards. We care about our products after the delivery, and not only before,” concludes Muecke.