747 firefighting

[spesimen 135]

bunch of wildfires popped up in northern california last night. lots of people displaced.

california has recently acquired the services of this 747 tanker that drops flame retardant.

if you're a fan of the 747 you might enjoy the vid in the article! crazy seat-of-pants flying in the queen

http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Watch-CalFire-s-747-Super-Tanker-attack-the-Wine-12264476.php

 

cheers,-andy crosby

[warbirds 555]

Wow, thanks. 

[Bob Scott 7,721]

That plane is not Cal Fire's, nor is it based at McClellan...love how the San Fran media tries to make it look like this is a CA state asset coming to the rescue.  In fact, that one-of-a-kind jet is based in Colorado Springs a few miles from where I'm sitting.  California is just renting its services.

It is a beast, though...can lay down a 1.5 mile swath of retardant in one pass--160,000 lbs in just about 20 sec.  Uses high-volume pumps designed after the fuel pump on the Saturn rockets.

Cheers

 

 

[MartinRex007 390]

Also, "10 Tanker Air Carrier" has two DC-10's that are used for firefighting and can drop 12,000 gallons at a time of fire retardant. One of them is currently on the Anaheim fire in SoCal. Approximate price is $10,000 an hour when it's in use, wish we had a few more to use here in California...

Cheers

Martin