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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0453.PDF
20 April 1956 453 photography is used to count salmon below the surface of the sea and for mapping streams and coastlines. Sometimes the surveys and photos also bring to light duck traps and illegal hunters, with such success that few poachers now see any future in their sport, especially since the aircraft began working in radio contact with ground patrols. One final job that deserves mention is the transportation by air of wild animals to new and sometimes inaccessible areas. Deer have been transplanted from the United States to the Virgin Islands, and black grouse and capercailh'e from Sweden to Wisconsin. Remote lakes have been re-stocked with baby fish, dropped into the water from low-flying aircraft without injury. But the most interesting story of all comes from Idaho, where very superior beavers have been dropped by parachute in cases which spring open as soon as they touch the ground. Nor are beavers the only things that parachute on to remote areas in Idaho, and this seems as good a place as any to introduce the "smoke-jumpers" of the U.S. Forest Service—another of the air-minded American Government organizations. Their story is linked to a large extent with that of Johnson Flying Service of Missoula, Montana, a comparatively small U.S. operator which does a very big job without much publicity. Its "boss", Bob Johnson, began flying fire-spotting missions over the Bitterroot mountains in 1928 and the story of how he built up his Service is one of the greatest in aviation's 50-year history. At that time, a really good storm could pepper the forest country with lightning fires that burned unchecked for weeks or months, and millions of acres of valuable timber were lost. To supplement his fire-spotting, Johnson dropped into almost inaccessible regions all the materials needed to build look-out towers. Then he began landing fire-fighters in tiny clearings hacked out of the forest, and learned to parachute equipment and food to them. Each development reduced the time lag that could turn a small blaze into a forest-devouring monster and by 1939 the only job Johnson could not do was deliver fire-fighters right to the doorstep of every fire. Someone suggested parachuting men as well as supplies into the forests and a few trial drops were made over open ground. Then, one day, came the mistake that everyone had dreaded. Some of the parachutists mis-judged their jump and drifted into clusters of tall trees. Surprisingly, they reported the softest land- ings they had ever made, and from that moment there was nothing to stop the project. Wearing baseball masks, special helmets and padded clothing, the first two teams of eight volunteer smoke- jumpers began training for action, which came early in 1940 when the National Forests of the Northern Rockies began smoking in several isolated spots after a bad storm. Never had fires been tackled so quickly, or with such excellent results, and the number of smoke-jumpers has increased steadily ever since, although the total is still under 300. (Right) The president of an oil-drilling company arrives in his Bonanza at a site in Oklahoma. The U.S.A. has 27,500 private-use aircraft. During the past three years, they have made 4,500 jumps from Bob Johnson's aircraft alone, at about one-third of the cost of ground parties, and have saved untold acres of timber. Despite the difficulty of judging their jumps in hot air currents that make the aircraft buck and sway, they normally land within 50 to 200 yards of their aiming point, using special 30-ft diameter 'chutes, with a wide scalloped edge to ensure a slow rate of descent and with two large flaps for steering. Personal equipment includes a knife and a rope with which the jumper can lower himself to the ground if he ends up in a high tree. Tools, lamps, rations, first aid kits, water canteens and other equipment are parachuted down after him, the whole operation taking no more than five or ten minutes. In 1954, the smoke-jumpers dealt with 489 fires. In addition, 23371 fire-fighters and other passengers were carried by aircraft owned or hired by the Forest Service, including quite a lot by helicopter, and more than a million pounds of supplies and equip- ment were parachuted to fire-fighters. In Operation Fuestop, 40 men and a small fleet of aircraft spent 10 months studying new methods of coping with forest fires, during which they built 25 X^IXN! This Easter the Automobile Association used an Airspeed Consul— chartered from Morton Air Services—tor an investigation of holiday road traffic problems. Radio communication was maintained with A.A. offices and patrols. miles of experimental firebreaks, 10 miles of roads and tracks, three helicopter landing sites and 22 weather stations. An old Avenger torpedo-bomber was rigged to drop 600 gallons of water or chemicals from its bomb-bay over an area 50ft wide and 270ft long. Hiller 12-B, Bell 47 and S-55 helicopters were also used for water bombing and to lay hose over rough country. The S-55 picked up and delivered to a fire area a small hook-on "helitanker," consisting of two 50-gallon tanks, a small pump and 300ft of hose. The results will make the aerial fire-fighters of the U.S. Forest Service even more efficient in the years ahead. Nor are aircraft used only in the direct offensive against fires. Considerable successes have been achieved in re-seeding burned areas. Aerial survey and photography are widely used for inven- tories of timber resources. And aircraft play a big part in dealing with forest pests—both the human kind who start fires and the insects and diseases that can lay waste whole areas of fine timber. Here again the Johnson Flying Service provides a good example, for its two DC-3s, one DC-2 and three Ford Trimotors have sprayed over a million acres of forest in the last three years to sup- press spruce budworm and pine butterfly, at a cost of under a dollar per acre. If we multiply this effort by about 1,000 we have a fair picture of the total resources being poured into agricultural flying in America, where nearly 7,000 aircraft, owned by 2,000 companies, do nothing else but help farmers and foresters. Of these, more than 5,000 are used for the Application of dusts, sprays, seeds and fertilizers. By comparison, it is estimated that some 65 aircraft are emoloyed on similar work in Western Europe. Yet agricultural aircraft are outnumbered three to one by the vast fleet of aircraft used for business flying in America. The total of 21,500 in 1954, the last year for which comparative statis-
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