California this past weekend put to work all three of the largest aerial tankers now available to the US Forest Service and others in the United States on the "Station" fire near Los Angeles.
New to the airborne arsenal -- which traditionally has included firefighting helicopters, small-, medium- and large-sized fixed wing aircraft and for the past several years, two 12,000 gallon "very large" DC-10 tankers (owned by 10 Tanker Air Carrier) -- is Evergreen International Aviation's Boeing 747-100 Supertanker, which holds a total of 20,000 gallons.
Two video segments by a local news channel show the Supertanker in action, accompanied by a video by AIRBOYD that shows some of the features of the aircraft, plus a view of drop testing methods used by the government to test how well the aircraft spreads fire retardant.
Below that is a video of some local residents happy to see the DC-10s in action (which they refer to as "supertankers").
on September 8, 2009 3:37 AM | Reply
The disadvantage of this plane is how to fill it with water:
You need an airport with a long strip, a complex pumping system and plenty of water available near the fire.