On the back of their announcement late last year that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had approved seven additional Sikorsky Black Hawk Type Certificates on the Helitak FT4500 Black Hawk STC, Helitak has now received certification for the Super Puma Fire Tank.

In 2019, European rotary operator ‘Heli Austria’ reached out to Helitak in a bid to fast-track the development of the Helitak FT4250 Super Puma fire tank. And while the pandemic delayed the process, three years of hard work has come to fruition with FAA issuing a Supplemental Type Certificate last week (Certification No: SR04509CH).

An Australian aerial firefighting design and manufacturing company, Helitak have been specializing in rotary aircraft fire suppressions systems for over a decade and their tanks are widely recognized for their innovative retractable design that maximizes head pressure and delivers high volumes of water and retardant in an unmatched drop pattern.

CEO and founder of Helitak, Jason Schellaars said, “The advantage of our tanks is that they are lightweight, offer large Type 1 water volume capacity and have easy plug-and-play operations that deliver a perfect and controllable drop pattern every time.”

The STC Certification project was overseen and managed by U.S. Technical (Aviation Products, Services, Engineering & Certification) based in Southern California. In addition to continuing to work with Helitak on a number of projects, U.S. Technical will be the Parts Manufacturing Approval (PMA) house for this product.

The Super Puma tank offers a plug-and-play underbelly tank that can be installed or removed in less than 25 minutes, requires no costly aircraft modifications and is the only external Super Puma tank offering 1000 gallon+ capacity.

This press release was prepared and distributed by Jennifer Swaine for Helitak.