Aerial Mule™ (available 2009)
Fighting a high-rise fire is a tall order, especially when it comes to the problem of how to get equipment quickly up to a high staging floor below the fire. Now at last there's an answer.
With the Aerial Mule equipment delivery system, fire equipment is rapidly ferried up the outside of a building to a staging floor two floors below the fire in 1/10th the time using 1/10th the number of firefighters required today. As a result, firefighters are not only ready-for-action at a much faster rate than before, but more firefighters are available to fight the fire.
Aerial Mule consists of a Descent Unit, a Battery Pack, a Motor, and a Lexan Cargo Container that mate to form a four-sided contoured cargo ferrying system. The system can ferry 300 lbs of equipment to a high staging floor at 2 ft/sec (~ 10 floors/min), then return slowly and automatically to the ground at 1ft/sec (~ 5 floors/min) for reloading. A 50 story round-trip takes approximately 15 minutes.