plane wash!

what happened? looks like a space shuttle in the back.
did the washing machine go on the fritze again?

For got to put it on rinse

According to local sources, this sudsy event occurred out at Hanscom AFB in a civil aviation hanger. The hangar's fire ex system went off and that's what you're looking at -- I can find out more specifics (date, location, type of chemicals).

Pete Young
Cambridge MA

Great what they do to plane now days. Mr clean.

I never thought anyone could top the act of farting in the bath tub.

Bubbles Bubbles Bubbles.

you know.... you gotta wonder what the guy was thinking when he opened the hangar door that morning and all he saw was a wall of foam....

I hope all the doors/windows on those planes were closed.

Daaa-DA,,, Daaa-DA,,, DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA etc. (Badly typed version of the theme to Jaws)

And then, in a nasally voice we hear at the door to enter the hangar.... "Landshark!"

-or-

We ran out of expanding foam for our 100% molds! Quick, somebody go to Home Depot!

So here's what I found out. The hangar's CO2 firex system was inadvertently triggered and the picture shows the results - the sudsy bubbles traps the carbon dixoide and keeps it close to the ground - this effectively snuffs out a fuel-fed fire. In this case, no fire so all they got was an eyecatching picture. I'm sure there's plenty of general aviation FBO-savvy folks who are up to speed on the specifics of the firex system but when you think about it, you'd need a lot of foam and CO2 to combat the possible effects of a fire in large hangar with fueled general aviation jet aircraft within.

Pete Young
Cambridge MA

This is why you NEVER use too much Probond when sheeting wings.......

Real life opening to the movie "AIRPLANE"

If memory serves correct, that is AFFF foam. We can thank our bovine friends for it. Made (I was told) with cow blood.
Don't think it has anything to do with C02.

We had this same thing happen in a C-5 Galaxy hangar in NY one time. A visitor was taking a tour and snapped a photo inside the hangar and the flashbulb set off the fire suppression system. Funniest thing I ever saw!

One manufacturer of this AFFF fire protection foam is Ansul. I installed one of these systems a few years ago at an aircraft hanger for the FAA. You won't believe how little of this stuff it takes to make that much foam. Based on what I see there, that could have been as little as 5000 Gallons. To give you an idea, I was in a mechanical room working on the system, and somebody removed a pressure guage that had 80psi of this stuff behind it and it squirted out probably a gallon, and we had this stuff everywhere an inch thick. What a miserable night, it cleans up like liquid tide. Miserable.

what a mess

This Foamie sucks

Anti-ice on

yes that would be AFFF aquious film forming foam basicaly dish soap with protein(animal blubber) mixed in. we use this stuff to supress aircraft fuel vapors, who ever set it off is in a world off hurt.

Were's Ensign Pulver?

We use the same stuff for the flight deck and hangarbays of the Aircaft carriers.

I had to check all of the nozzels on the flight deck. To do this they activate the flightdeck wash down system, and we would go around to each nozzel and make sure it had good spray and was not clogged.
It would have been fine had we not been in the northern pacific (north of Washington state) in October. It was a little chilly, but you should have seen the trail we left

Been there done that, USS Nimitz in 95 Bremerton Washington. Now Crash Fire and Rescue NAS Sigonella. hows it going???

Not bad, I was on the CVN 72 Abraham Lincoln. Now a civilian
The Lincoln was still in Alameda when I was on it.

Yea life is better than haze gray and underway, I miss the persian gulf like a bad case of hemoroids.



Kevin