Kaan Air of Turkey has taken delivery of three Ka-32A11BC multipurpose helicopters from Russian Helicopters. The aircraft, part of a contract signed in July 2018, will be used for firefighting.

“The Ka-32A11BC is the helicopter with the best technical equipment for firefighting missions,” notes Andrey Boginskiy, CEO of Russian Helicopters Holding Company. “This rotorcraft is an admitted leader in its class, and it is capable of solving a wide range of tasks. We are looking forward to further fruitful cooperation with our Turkish partners as far as delivery and after-sales support of helicopters are concerned.”

Rostec director for international cooperation and regional policy Viktor Kladov adds: “Russia has top-tier competence in the civil helicopter industry. Depending on the types of tasks and missions, we are ready to deliver a variety of helicopters to our Turkish partners.

“Right now Turkey is interested in expanding its fleet of firefighting aircraft, and we intend to continue developing our cooperation with Ankara in this field. We estimate the current Turkish market for this type of helicopters at several dozens of machines.”

The Ka-32A11BC multipurpose helicopter is designed to perform complex firefighting operations, special search and rescue and high altitude construction operations, to transport cargo inside the fuselage and on the external sling, to log forest, transport patients and evacuate injured persons.

The co-axial scheme and absence of the tail rotor ensure compactness, high power-to-weight ratio and manoeuvrability, as well as good controllability. The Ka-32A11BC has a high load lifting capacity of up to five tons of cargo on the external sling. The assigned service life of the type has been extended to 32,000 hours, which promises lower operating costs.

The firefighting version of Ka-32A11BC can be equipped with various fire extinguishing systems, including a Bambi Bucket and Simplex type, as well as a horizontal firefighting system. The helicopter is capable of extinguishing flames on the highest floors of high rise buildings and on oil and gas industrial facilities. The Ka-32A11BC has been acknowledged by experts as one of the world's best firefighting helicopters; it is a symbol of the Global Helicopter Firefighting Initiative (GHFI), a programme intended to improve the operating efficiency of specialised firefighting helicopters.

The Ka-32A11BC helicopter is EASA certified and meets FAR-29 and AP-29 standards. It is already being used in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Spain, Canada, Kazakhstan, China, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, South Korea and Japan.

The main field activity of Kaan Air is delivery and after-sales support of helicopters as well as a wide range of transportation services from air taxi and VIP transport to environmental monitoring and fire extinguishing.