Munich Airport Fire Brigade Equipped with Allison Fully Automatic Transmissions, Panther Firefighting Vehicles “Full Power” Activated.

As sirens wail and the broadcast announces the start of the exercise: “Munich Airport standby alert, a passenger aircraft is smoking upon approach.” Two firefighters, who have practiced every detail hundreds of times, now know exactly what to do. They run towards the Panther fire truck and press the quick-start button. At the same time, the vehicle’s onboard electronics start up, the clamshell doors open, and the hangar doors rise. The fire truck, with 1430 horsepower, heads towards the taxiway. Equipped with two Allison 4800R fully automatic transmissions and two continuously preheated Volvo engines, the 52-ton fire truck accelerates to 120 kilometers per hour in just a few seconds. Flames are spewing from the left engine of the aircraft, and the two firefighters concentrate all the fire-extinguishing power of the giant fire truck on the burning plane. The fire is quickly extinguished.

Within 180 seconds, the two young firefighters drive the Panther into the scene and initiate initial firefighting measures. In less than two minutes, all the fire-extinguishing agents on board are used up. In less than five minutes, their firefighting mission is completed. Such impressive realistic drills are regularly conducted by the fire department. Regarding this drill, Jürgen Reichhuber, Head of Vehicle Technology at Munich Airport’s Fire Department, commented, “In emergencies, precision and speed are indispensable. The Panther is our largest fire truck, and according to this alert, it is used as the first-responding fire truck.”

Florian Klein, Deputy Chief of the airport fire department, said: “Munich Airport’s fire department is proud of its unique training facilities, modern innovative equipment, highly professional team, and a fleet of fire trucks that includes four new Panthers.” These four Panther 8×8 fire trucks were put into service between 2020 and 2022, replacing the old fire trucks. Two of the Panther fire trucks are equipped with roof turrets, and the other two are equipped with Stinger fire-fighting arms, which can extinguish fires from almost any attacking position.

After a Europe-wide tender, Munich Airport GmbH chose this vehicle configuration to achieve maximum impact, acceleration, and stability, while improving vehicle control and personnel comfort. To be able to control the 52-ton fire truck at the fastest speed in emergencies, the engine’s power and torque must be fully transmitted to all eight wheels with uninterrupted traction. The Allison fully automatic transmission, equipped with a patented torque converter and uninterrupted full-power shifting, provides excellent acceleration performance and seamless traction.

Every emergency requires the best performance from drivers. They must drive this majestic large vehicle to the scene of the accident at high speed and, if necessary, carry out firefighting operations at the same time. This requires drivers to perfectly coordinate several completely different tasks. Panther operator and driving instructor Michael Eder said: “In emergencies, every driver must be able to handle all vehicles, including the Panther. It has been proven that drivers find the fully automatic transmission makes driving and operation very easy and are full of confidence. Considering that they also need to operate other high-difficulty equipment at the same time, this is a huge advantage. Such a fully automatic transmission is indeed a valuable support.”

Reichhuber said: “Over the years, we have continued to purchase vehicles equipped with automatic torque converter transmissions. Now, 90% of our vehicles are equipped with fully automatic transmissions, and about two-thirds of the fleet uses Allison equipment. They hardly have any failures, are highly reliable, and have very good mobility. Their torque converters make the vehicle handling very sensitive and precise.”

The Panther fire truck represents the royal class in aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicles, measuring 13 meters in length, 3 meters in width, and 4 meters in height, with a huge size and powerful power. The Munich 8×8 Panther is powered by two Volvo D16 Euro 6 engines, with a total output of 1430 horsepower. Two Allison 4800R fully automatic transmissions with torque converters and retarders can quickly shift gears on heavy vehicles and accelerate from 0 to 80 kilometers per hour in about 20 seconds. The maximum speed is limited to 135 kilometers per hour.

According to the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), this dual-engine technology must enable the Panther to sprint to any emergency scene within the entire flight operation area within three minutes.

The fire extinguishing water tank can hold 12,500 liters of water and 1,500 liters of foam fire extinguishing agent. Vehicles equipped with Stinger fire-fighting arms can carry an additional 500 kilograms of fire-extinguishing powder. Models with roof turrets are equipped with a carbon dioxide fire extinguishing system, which can carry 120 kilograms of carbon dioxide. The built-in pump has a capacity of up to 10,000 liters per minute, the RM65 electronic control turret on the fire arm has an output of up to 6,000 liters per minute, and the RM35C electronic control turret on the bumper has an output of up to 4,750 liters per minute.

In addition, the Panther fire truck is also equipped with a quick attack hose reel and self-protection spray nozzles to prevent kerosene from flowing under the vehicle. If necessary, the fire-extinguishing agents on board can be fully released within 90 seconds. During the approach, the turret and ground nozzles can also be activated by switching to pump-roll operation.

The Allison 4800 fully automatic transmission is optimized specifically for the needs of emergency vehicles. With full-power shifting and a hydrodynamic torque converter, the Allison transmission can provide impressive acceleration performance. The torque converter of the Allison multiplies engine torque during startup and acceleration, providing more power to the wheels. There is no loss of traction during gear shifting, thus transmitting power seamlessly to the drive wheels and maximizing the efficiency of the engine and transmission. The Allison torque converter transmission allows the Volvo engine to fully utilize its torque capacity. With this support, the Rosenbauer heavy-duty chassis can provide uncompromising traction and acceleration performance for emergency vehicles.

The Allison transmission has been proven to be very reliable and requires very little maintenance after practical testing in the Munich Airport Fire Department. The integrated hydrodynamic retarder and power take-off have also been proven to have very low maintenance costs.

The Allison fully automatic transmission has extremely high reliability and stability and is widely used by many fire departments. For example, the first-response vehicles equipped with the Allison fully automatic transmission, such as the Rosenbauer Panther, have won the widespread trust of global airport operators.