Large Firefighting Planes?

As far as I know there are 2 of the supertankers operating in CA. They do not reload by skimming but instead land and get filled, most airplane based tankers these days do not do the skimming meathod of refill. This is due to a higher use of retardants instead of just water. The 747s are rarely used due to the size of the load, that is a lot of water crashing down. The 747s can only be used in wide open areas where you will not hit any people or structures.

Sorry the feds shut it down . See

http://firebomberpublications.blogspot.com/2007/03/747-supertanker-heads-into-sunset.html

It has now been reconverted into a cargo plane but has kept its fire fighting capability.

http://www.firerescue1.com/wildland/articles/102459/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_firefighting

Really, kind of odd. I looked at your info, most of it was dated. I have a couple friends that do wildland FF and they said the DC-10 is still in use, the 747 is not in use in the US it is currently in Australia. I do not know if it will every come back. My buddy said he heard they are putting together 2 more of the DC-10s. They work great just cost a lot, but cheaper than losing all those houses.

There is lots of DC 10s, C180s and Mars Water bombers, etc in use.

a few good pictures here

http://wildfirenews.com/archive/101403.shtml

There has been a lot of coverage on just this subject. I just watched a news blurp on the usage with video of this aircraft dumping its load on the fires in the San Bernardino mountains. They use four 12 inch tubes to pump the 20,000 gallons out at various rates.

There are several articles concerning the developement of these aircraft by evergreen and a few other companies.

Never heard of such preposition... intriguing though.

But if an AG-Cat or a Polish Drommader can skim the lake, Why not a 747? as long as you have the waterway length, 450 m³ of water will take some time to suck... and if the pilots knows what they are doing, that may also help. However, How much will this Behemoth super firefighter cost sitting on the apron waiting for a disaster to happen?

looks to me a bit impractical...

Wangito.

I thought that most of the DC-10 fleet was sitting in mothball in the Mojave desert.

I remember a true story about firefighters finding the body of a man in the middle of a forest after a fire. He was clothed in a scuba suit and wearing his tanks and gear. It was later determined that the man had been scuba diving in an area where the supertankers had taken water while he was diving and he was accidentally swept from the lake by the supertanker and dumped on the forest fire. Makes me want to give up scuba diving..

True story?

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/scuba.asp

You are gullible.

I've heard some whoppers in my time but that's a classic.