Whadda ya do with an old Russian tank and decommissioned MiG 15 engines? If you're the Hungarian Blowout Specialists, you build something called 'The Big Wind' which huffs, and puffs, and BLOWS well fires out.
Don't try this at home.
In actual fact, the Hungarian team had this little wonder lying around before the wells were set on fire. Its original purpose -- to perform bulk decontamination of Warsaw Pact tanks (remember the Warsaw Pact?) in the event of a nuclear exchange with NATO.
I, for one, am glad they never got to use it as it was originally (re)designed.
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| A buncha' macho guys standing around admiring some really hot hardware. And themselves of course. | Side view shows the mist nozzles above the business end of the jet engines. The blast from the engines pulls water from a lagoon through the nozzles and sprays it on the well fire as cold mist -- mist that's traveling at supersonic speeds. |
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| Ready to roar into action. | One of three operators with his portable
control panel. The other two operators (inside the tank body) drive the
tank and keep the jet engines running.
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| The Big Wind approaches the well . . . | Revs up its engines and begins spitting out
supersonic mist . . .
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. . . and blows the well out like a big candle. |