Special Aircraft

A very special position in the world of aviation do have the special aircraft, highly specialized designs like fire fighters and crop duster. They do handle tasks that don't seem possible to accomplish for aircraft.

Myasishev M 55 Geofisika

Developed from a military high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, the Geofisika is a special aircraft for geo sciences which can take over tasks that have been accomplished perviously by satellites. Flying very high for a long time and making images with ground radar, infrared and visible light, whatever is needed by the ground surveyors, farmers, cartographers, etc. This way the Geofisika is more flexible, mor available and much more cost effective than geo satellites that have done the job previously.
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NASA Super Guppy

  The Super Guppy is a conversion of an oldeer freighter airplane (in this case a Boeing C 97 Stratocruiser). The enormous freight hold is large enough to accomodate extreme large goods, for example rocket stages, large satellites and aircraft wings. The hinged nose of the aircraft swings open allowing huge loads access through the front of the airplane.
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Airbus / SATIC A 300-600 ST Beluga

Airbus had originally some of the Super Guppies in use to transport the modules between the Airbus production plants. But the SGT was too slow and the parts to carry became too huge, so a new aircraft was designed. The Beluga is based on the Airbus A300 freighter with a substantially enlarged hull. For loading / unloading the upper part of the nose can be swinged up for easy access of the cargo bay.
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Grumman C 1 Trader / Fre Fighter

Originally the C1 Trader is a carrier based transport. A few have been converted for fire fighting. This one is operated by the french Sécurité Civile.
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Canadair CL 415 Fire Fighter

This is the only aircraft that has been deigned as a fire fighter. Being an amphibious aircraft, it can go down on a lake an refill its water tanks within seconds and get back to the fire without delay. With this method it is capable of bringing a multiple amount of water onto the target area than any other system. This one here is operated by the french Sécurité Civile.
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WSK Mielec M 18 Dromader - Crop Duster

The Dromader (Camel) is a typical crop duster with its humpback hull with the high cocpit to provide a better view, the mighty engine and the aerodynamics for slow speeds and maximum lift. These aircraft fly slow 'n low over the fields and bring all kinds of substances to the crop.
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