Interesting find, definatly looks odd.

It says that it carries 100 ton loads. How much water is that? Enough to be effective for forest fires?

My math is a little rusty right now, but it seems that that's roughly 25,000 gallons. Thats a good amount to fight a forest fire with. -Muzz

What's with the second picture? Are those rows of seats? Where does it mention being a passenger vehicle?

I'm not a hundred percent sure intrepid, but muzz may be onto something.
I have been looking for more information on this, but not found anything.

I do feel and from my limited understanding of the current firefighting aircraft that the US Forestry does use, that this above aircraft will carry and dispense more water or fire retardent chemicals than the current in service aircraft we utilize. Besides, past and current US Forestry reports indicate that the US fire fighting fleet aircraft are very aged and in need of suitable replacing.



seekerof

[Edited on 23-4-2004 by Seekerof]

Well, with the payload and hover capabillity, as opposed to strafing, this might be a huge jump in fire containment.

PS, thanks Muzz, been living with the metric system too long.

Originally posted by Carvador
What's with the second picture? Are those rows of seats? Where does it mention being a passenger vehicle?

The Aviation Concern makes multiple versions of the aircraft....what you see is one such version....sellability.


seekerof

Most of the US Dept air tankers are just 1500-2000 gallons and can lose much retardant because it has to strafe. It would be really nice if they had a way to control how much they release, 5,000 gallons here, 8,000 gallons here. Right now it's either all or none. I can only speak for the air tankers on the east coast, cause thats where I fight fire. Lets just say that if I was fighting a forest fire and I had this thing hovering over me with 25,000 gallons of water, I wouldn't say no. -Muzz

PS: Not a problem, I like to help out when ever possiable.




[Edited on 4-24-2004 by muzz]

looks like its going to utilise "ground effect" - very low level flying

SO is it a WIG [Wing in ground effect]. It looks alot different from the paintings that were circled around at the end of the cold war.

Are there any flying yet?

psteel....
Click the two links in my original posting...some good information in there that may answer your questions.


seekerof