This Chevrolet built 1.5 ton 4×4 crash truck served at Muroc Army Airfield, CA during and well after WWII. The Class 110 truck was manufactured by Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors with the firefighting equipment body added after manufacture. The Class 100 and 110 Crash Trucks were the first standard crash fire units developed for airfield use. The standard Class 110 crash truck was similar to the Class 100, but assembled on a different chassis and without separate foam tank, foam solution being mixed directly into the water tank.
Muroc Army Airfield where this truck served had an important and event-filled history. In the 1930s the Army Air Corps acquired land next to Muroc Dry Lake for a new bombing range away from populated areas. By 1938 Muroc had become the focus of much aircraft development and testing. During WWII Muroc and the adjacent Rogers Dry Lake Bed became the secret testing ground for new U.S. military aircraft and that continued after the war. On 14 October 1947 Captain Charles “Chuck” Yeager flew the small bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket powered aircraft named “Glamorous Glennis” to become the first human to exceed the speed of sound. In December 1949, Muroc was renamed Edwards Air Force Base in honor of Captain Glen Edwards, who was killed a year earlier in the crash of the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing, the forerunner of today’s B-2 Stealth Bomber. In 1951, the unit was renamed the Air Force Flight Test Center. Edwards AFB and nearby locations continue to serve as the primary test location for Air Force aircraft, remotely piloted vehicles, lifting bodies and NASA experimental designs.
Specifications
- Engine: overhead valve 6-cylinder Chevrolet BV1001 ( 83 hp) engine
- Transmission: 4-speed manual transmission with 2-speed transfer gearbox
- Wheelbase: 12 ft
- Chassis weight: 7551 lbs
- Full Load weight: 16,500 lbs
- Speed: 50 mph
- Tank capacity: 250 gal
- Pump: 100 gal per minute
- Hose: 100 ft of 1.5 in rubber lined hose
