Australian company Helitak, located on the Sunshine Coast, have received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to include seven additional Sikorsky Black Hawk Type Certificates on the Helitak FT4500 Black Hawk STC that was awarded in May 2021 bringing the total to 10 UH-60 or EH-60 models now approved for operation.
With the receipt of the AML Amendment, operators of Black Hawk helicopters issued under these eight Type Certificates are approved to install and operate the Helitak FT4500 Fire Suppression Tank. Further Type Certificates will be added in the coming months.
The Type Certificates approved in the Amended Supplemental Type Certificate are:
Offering the only FAA certified underbelly fire suppression tank for the Black Hawk helicopter in the World, the proven performance of the Helitak FT4500 Fire Suppression Tank has further been confirmed with the recent contract announcement by the Australian National Aerial Fire Centre (NAFC) where all five Black Hawk aircraft receiving contracts will operate with the Helitak tank installed.
Helitak previously secured their intellectual property with Patent and Design Registration applications submitted in Australia, the USA and other selected countries and territories around the world to protect their next generation tank design and tank mounting systems used in connection with the FT4500 Black Hawk fire suppression tank.
Helitak, CEO and Founder Jason Schellaars said, “This certification is so important as it increases the number of helicopters that are approved to operate the FT4500 Fire Suppression Tank, and as we head into Summer it means that these operators who are so instrumental in fighting bush fires, will be able to use our tank as part of their firefighting strategies.
“Importantly, the FT4500 is light, easy to install, allows for large Type 1 water volume capacity and offers easy plug and play operations allowing for a perfect and controllable drop pattern every time and when fighting bush fires accuracy and being able to carry as much water as the aircraft will allow can make all the difference,” Mr Schellaars said.
About Helitak
Helitak Fire Fighting Equipment is a Rotary Aerial Firefighting specialist, aerial firefighting design and manufacturing company located on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.
Every Helitak tank is custom built and has a carrying capacity that ranges from 250 to 2645 gallons (945 to 10,000 litres) of water and the carbon fibre design means there are no structural modifications required to the aircraft. Refill time is also kept to a minimum using the Helitak-manufactured Hover Pumps (HP) which provide a refill time of less than 30 seconds for the HP2000 on the smaller tanks and less than 50 seconds for the HP6000 on the Black Hawk and Super Puma tanks.
The innovative design and technology behind Helitak’s expandable water tank quickly drew attention from all over the world and in 2009 The Helitak Fire Tank was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “New Inventors Program”, earning the winning design and ‘People’s Choice’ awards.
In October 2020, Helitak Fire Fighting Equipment added another trophy to their stable taking home a national award at the Australian Technologies Competition, which is aimed at identifying and accelerating “Australia’s best ‘deep tech’ scaleups”.