Best Air Pak of the late 70s-Early 80s?

[SamsonFCDES]

Here is a topic for the more mature members...

I am a young blood in the fire service when compared to most of my peers. But, that doesnt mean that I have never had the chance to use some golden oldies.

I am trying to date when the Scott Airpak 2 was prominant. What years were they made, what year did they first arive?



I am on a small rural Montana department, these are our front line SCBAs with the exception of 4 MSA Ultralight IIs. We have a FEMA grant comeing to update these units... Thank GOD!!!

Dont get me wrong, it was neat to experience the best that the 70s (I think) had to offer, but I am excited on getting cought up technology wise.

So, another part of the thread, what was the competition for this old Scott Air Pak 2?

Thanks

[FireCapt1951retired]

Don't know the year of the Scott pack, we never used them. The major competition was more than likely MSA. We wore the same MSA harness' for more than 35+ years. We used the demand regulators and steel cylinders until around 1986-87, when we went to the light air cylinders and few years later upgraded the harness' regulator to positive pressure. Those damn MSA harness' just plain wouldn't die. Just thought I'd add that when I first started in the fire service we were actually trained in the old chest mounted Chemox canister masks while in the academy.

[EFD840]

I don't have any idea when they were introduced. I do know you can find two of them in our light rescue. They're still in use as backup sets for our 6 MSAs but will be permanently retired when our new FIRE act-funded Survivairs arrive.

We've actually got several of these packs, but only keep two in service. The others are used as props in training classes.

[33motor]

One thing I remember about em is that they seemed to have a rounder face mask. My face is a little more narrow. I almost always had some air leaking here and there. Thank GOD for progress , cause my face never got any fatter.

[SamsonFCDES]

From What I gather the original Scott Air Pak (I) was introduced in 1945 after the Scott Aviation engineers watched a working fire across the street and were appauled that the firemen had to eat so much smoke. They adapted some of their aviation breathing gear to work. I would love to see an original Scott Air Pak.

There were many SCBA type devices before that, but I think that in the late 40s is when the revolution of modern SCBAs realy took off.

The Scott Air Pak II above is the successor to the Air Pak I. Then I believe the mask mounted regulator Scotts came out, but I am not sure when.

I am guessing that the Air Pak II was a 60' or so model, maybe the Scott 2.2 was early 80s???

Soctt 2.2, first Scott with mask mounted regulator I believe.




It would be an interesting website (or book) IMO to detail the history of the SCBA, from the old socks you wet and pulled over you head to the rubber bladders of air to the dangerous rebreathers to the modern compressed air units to the future of SCBAs.

I would read it anyways...

[BCmdepas3280]

From looking at the first picture, we had some of those style packs when I started in 1985 and I was told by some of the 30 year veterans that these were brand new 30 years ago. If thats the case, than your looking at a 48year old pack. Time to upgrade.

[SamsonFCDES]

Originally posted by Ltmdepas3280
From looking at the first picture, we had some of those style packs when I started in 1985 and I was told by some of the 30 year veterans that these were brand new 30 years ago. If thats the case, than your looking at a 48year old pack. Time to upgrade.

Good God NO!!! That would break with tradtion...

Seriously, we should be announced any day now for a Fire Act Grant to do just that, questions sent and answered, 1199A updated and accepted.

I would not doubt for a minute that those are 40+ years old, I should just email Scott and get some history, I did find this neat website that has a lot of museum history.

http://www.jersey.net/~dwayne/history1.htm

Here is the SCBA section.

http://www.jersey.net/~dwayne/hist7e.htm

LOL, our department is a live action museum in many sences of the word, very few <30 members (5 of 30) my self included, some very old gear, SCBAs for example, and a lot of traditional sticks in the mud.

I can already hear it now. "I have been useing these SCBAs for 30 years, I now every screw and nut, I can use them upside down submerged in water blindfolded, and now you want me to learn a NEW AIR PACK!!!!"

[Rescue101]

Old Scotts

Our Dept. has had Scotts from the Scott 1.The Scott 1's came into being shortly after WW2.I joined in late '68 and worked in the 1's until we replaced them with the Scott 2 in 74-75 as I remember.Then came the Pressure switch upgrade in the early 80's.Then it was the 2.2 wire frame in the Early 90's with the aluminum bottle, what a relief from the steels.Then to the AP50 with aluminum,now AP50 intergrated with Carbon.My personal pack is a wire frame 4.5 Carbon. I'll try to research the exact release dates but the 2 and 2A are obsolete/low flow units.T.C.

[SamsonFCDES]

Re: Old Scotts

Originally posted by Rescue101
Our Dept. has had Scotts from the Scott 1.The Scott 1's came into being shortly after WW2.I joined in late '68 and worked in the 1's until we replaced them with the Scott 2 in 74-75 as I remember.Then came the Pressure switch upgrade in the early 80's.Then it was the 2.2 wire frame in the Early 90's with the aluminum bottle, what a relief from the steels.Then to the AP50 with aluminum,now AP50 intergrated with Carbon.My personal pack is a wire frame 4.5 Carbon. I'll try to research the exact release dates but the 2 and 2A are obsolete/low flow units.T.C.

Thanks a bunch. What were the Scot 1s like? Did they look similar to the Scott 2s? Did they give you a sence of confidence? What is you impression as to the evolution of SCBAs? How do the older 1 and 2s compare to the Carbon bottle fifys?

I know what you mean about obsolete/low flow units. LOL, there was one guy we had that could suck air so har with a Scott 2 that the low air bell would go off! He still had goo tank pressure, he was just inhaleing so hard that the bell would ding. He was a big big guy though, 6'6" and well over 300lbs. He coud get 10 or less minutes out of a 30 minute bottle.

I sure will miss that sickly ring a ding sound when my bottles run out.

[HM604OH]

I started in 1976 and our dept was using the Scott II. These were non-positive pressure units with aluminum (not composite) cylinders. We also had 4 of the original Scott units. One had an original hydro-date from the late 1940s. We started buying positive pressure units around 1980.

The original Scotts were a pain to wear. The mask had a 6 point "harness" that never seemed to seal properly. The mask was also a bit "rounder" than the others. The harness for the cylinder and regulator was not well designed and if I remember correctly, required the user to thread the straps through the buckles. This didn't exactly make for rapid donning.

The unit shown in the first picture is one of the "newer" positive pressure units. We didn't start seeing those until the late 70's and early 80's. One problem we had with the Scott II was with the regulator. Scott used a very thin diaphram that was prone to tear. Niosh issued an alert following a LLOD and we discovered that our units had tears in the diaphrams just like those used by the deceased firefighters. Scott redesigned several parts of the regulators and sent us recall kits for every mask that we had.

As for competitors, the only ones that I every ran into in the late 70's were MSA and Survivair. Of the two, I preferred MSA due to its durability and ease of maintainance. I didn't like the Survivair due to the silicone facepiece (slid around on my face when hot)and the amount of maintainance that they seemed to require. Just my opinion. I know other departments that loved them.

[WTFD10]

Re: Best Air Pak of the late 70s-Early 80s?

Originally posted by SamsonFCDES

I am on a small rural Montana department, these are our front line SCBAs with the exception of 4 MSA Ultralight IIs. We have a FEMA grant comeing to update these units... Thank GOD!!!

Congratulations! We got turned down on our grant to replace 6 of these same units and 20 steel Scott bottles

[Bones42]

Man, I loved those packs! I can remember upgrading to those around 1988. Prior to 1988 we had the Scott's without the positive pressure switch option. Through testing, found that we could get about 10feet deep in a pool with them and still have it working (don't ask why). Around 1991 or 92, we started converting to Survivair from these and are now using the Survivair Panthers.

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

The Scott I was very similar to the Scott 2. It had a round regulator with a guage that was actually esaier to see than the one on the Scott 2. It was heavy as hell, as every piece of it was steel. I used them in the mid-70's and I remember them being about 40 pounds. I also remember using the old, old facepiece a couple of times, the one with two lenses, one over each eye, as opposed to the single lens.

That spider harness was really a pain. Imagine a teenage GWCFI, with 70's disco hair putting one of those bad boys on. I blame my baldness today on the eight skillion times I ripped hair out of my head tightening that thing up.

[Weruj1]

George .......gotta love that mental picture..........but I can relate to the old Scotts (Airpak II)and how the hairectomy was always so much fun ! Moe, maybe you should have traded the Excursion in for some SCBA !

[WTFD10]

Originally posted by Weruj1
Moe, maybe you should have traded the Excursion in for some SCBA !

Maybe, but then we couldn't ridicule 200's "cop car"