When you were a kid, did you want to grow up to be a fireman? I did, and if I'd had any inkling that this kind of equipment would someday be available, I might have pursued that particular daydream.
Car and Driver magazine sent some lucky writer off to ARFF (Airport Rescue Fire Fighting) school, where he got to play around with Oshkosh's finest.
Think of the Striker as the Porsche 959 of firetrucks. For starters, all six of its wheels are driven. "When airplanes crash, they don't usually stay on the runway," explains Capt. Rex Weber of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Fire/Rescue Department. The Striker thus offers a 30-degree angle of approach and departure, and it can climb a 50-percent grade. It's designed to flatten trees and the standard chain-link fences that surround U.S. airports. It's 10 feet wide -- with a monster track that helps keep it upright even when it's leaning 30 degrees to port or starboard. By firetruck standards, it's also quick. The FAA requires that ARFF trucks accelerate to 50 mph in 35.0 seconds and that, from the moment the alarm sounds, the truck is capable of reaching the midpoint of the most distant runway in no more than three minutes.
When I was working in aerospace, I got to play with things like this Titan 34D, but they never let me actually drive one. I got close enough to touch one on a launch platform ... once.
5:30:52 PM 
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