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DC-10 Airliner Attacks Big California Wildfires

Posted August 21, 2007 9:56 AM

From Telstar Logistics:

Here in the Western U.S., water tanker aircraft are often used to fight forest fires.  Most these aircraft are propeller-driven warbirds -- ex-military C-130s, P-3 Neptunes, or S-2 Trackers that have been repurposed to serve on the front lines of firefighting. Recently, however, a new aircraft has been spotted above California's smoke-filled skies: A DC-10 widebody airliner.  Known as Tanker 910, this DC-10 was originally delivered to National Airlines in 1975 as N69NA (shown right).  It later flew for Pan Am as Clipper Starlight before spending another 10 years hauling passengers for American. By 2002, the tired hull was retired to the desert boneyards of Mojave, California. In 2004, the aircraft got a new lease on life when it was acquired by Omni Air International and converted to a water-drop configuration by Cargo Conversions of San Carlos, California.

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#1

Re: DC-10 Airliner Attacks Big California Wildfires

08/22/2007 11:40 AM

Not a bad tool IF you are close to the refilling point. The good thing about the C-130s is that they can refill on-the-fly on almost any body of water and it only takes a few seconds. When you are way up in the mountains, it is much easier to find a good size lake than it is to find a big enough airport equipped with the re-fuelling capabilities...

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#2

Re: DC-10 Airliner Attacks Big California Wildfires

09/18/2018 1:24 AM

This was news 11 years ago! With all the big fires we've had in California and elsewhere the last couple of years, surely there must be some updates on how it has worked out. I personally saw one taking off from McClellan field in Sacramento at least once this summer, so I know they are still flying.

I don't know what fraction of their drops are just water, or what fraction of them are retardant. I do know that Retardant works! I happened to be flying over Linden, CA in early July of 2018 and saw this:

This is an enlarged portion of a photo I took as an afterthought... It may not be visible in the photo, but there was clearly a retardant drop from left to right just this side of the farm buildings in that unburned patch. The fire progressed from lower left to upper right, and this drop clearly protected those buildings. I presume this particular drop was from a smaller plane than the DC10.

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