First Global SuperTanker nears completion

a reply to: DexterRiley

I was mostly talking about when the fire is just getting started. 10 or 15 of these to knock it down as much as possible before it gets out of control.

Sounds good I guess. But, I suppose if it were that easy, they would already be doing it that way. Just a shame that so many lives and homes are lost to wildfires. Growing up in the hills of Burbank, CA., there were plenty of times I stood back to back with my Dad squirting embers landing on our roof from a brush fire.

a reply to: SonofaSkunk

Evergreen spent in excess of $40M converting an up to date 747-100 into a tanker. Who has over $400M that they can spend on water bombers, when smaller more flexible aircraft are available and cheaper.

The larger aircraft are great, but that's a lot of money to throw around for an aircraft that's only really necessary a few months out of the year.

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Such an underrated and relatively unknown gem.

I'll make a very compelling case that the Martin Mars is the most beautiful aircraft currently flying, God damn does the Evergreen paintjob do that bird justice.

It more or less makes up for the fact that there are no clippers left (other than the secret Sikorsky one in Connecticut...).

I wonder if the rise of metallic 3-d printing and other rapid prototyping and fabricating technologies might make it possible to build a new one from scratch?

I bet Shin Meiwa could do pretty well if they were to market a water bomber derivative of the US-2...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Added to the fact a bigger fleet of smaller aircraft is more flexible, able to respond quicker to problems by having distributed basing and the inherent redundancy of a larger fleet and probably being able to be deployed in a greater range of circumstances.

Still, that said I'm sure it'll be fantastic when it's needed. What a sight it must be for the guys on the ground seeing that roll in above them.

It's a neat plane

Great video of them testing the drop system, and a 3D walkthrough that you can move around and take a closer look at the interior.

www.popularmechanics.com...