What the Bombardier 415 Superscooper aircraft does fighting wildfires is unbelievable!

I knew about helicopters with buckets and hoses, and fire bombers, but until we had the latest local wildfires, I never knew this aircraft existed. It "scoops up" water from a source for use in fighting wildfires. Hats off to the pilots who fly this plane! Both plane and pilots are unbelievable. Thank you, Canada, for helping to save forest and property down here!



Follow the link to see pix in action. There are 3 photos of the plane, this one and two more to the left.

www.flickr.com...

The Bombardier 415 Superscooper (formerly Canadair CL-415 SuperScooper) is a Canadian amphibious aircraft purpose-built as a water bomber. It is an aircraft designed and built specifically for aerial firefighting and is based on the company's CL-215. It is marketed in the United States as the "Superscooper."
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The 415 can scoop up to 6,140 litres (1350 Imperial gal or 1,620 US gal) of water from a nearby water source, mix it with a chemical foam if desired, and drop it on a fire without having to return to base to refill its tanks.

Wikipedia

a reply to: desert

You will like this bird as well .

And these guys...

proud to have worked on this project.


www.youtube.com...

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Thank you so much for that vid! The plane is awesome!

I was born in the early 1950s, so as a young child I saw many of the old newsreels on tv of WW2 and air travel. Amphibious aircraft were a big part of both WW2 and 1930-40s passenger travel. If I was lucky, I could still see some amphibious aircraft in flight or docked in a harbor. But I was born at the start of jet travel, so those types of aircraft fell quickly out of use, when post WW2 saw the proliferation of land based airports worldwide, with no need to land, for example, in a harbor to visit a country.

These flying boats for passenger travel (besides military use) had an era lasting from 1920s through the end of 1940s. My favorite is the Pan Am Clipper, and a few years ago I actually met an elderly gentleman who had been a pilot on one, flying the transpacific route.

The generations after me probably only associate water landings with float planes in Alaska landing in remote areas or taking them on a ride as a tourist there, or watching one land in the Florida Keys and pull up to the quay at their favorite tiki bar (which is a hoot to watch).

Or they may have visited the Spruce Goose. Or know about Jimmy Buffett's Hemisphere Dancer

It was good to see your video, that amphibious aircraft are still around in a much needed use.

a reply to: olaru12

Perfect video for this thread! Thanks!
It gave me an up close look at the planes and people who retrofit, service and fly the fire bombers. I learned some things. You have to be insane and insanely in love with flying to be one of those pilots! Oh, I thought that the video sound quality and use was superb :-)

Years ago before jet fire bombers, I was starting up a local canyon, when we had to stop for a small fire by the side of the road. A firefighter flagged us down to stop, close to where the fire was. All of a sudden I hear this roar come up from behind and low overhead, the roar of the piston engines of a fire bomber! That crazy plane flew into the canyon, dropped its retardant no more than 150 feet in front of us onto the flames, and flew off. Not one drop on the car, but it took care of the fire.

So that was in the 1980s. Well, unfortunately, since then we have the same number of fires, but they are more intense and end up growing insanely fast to thousands of acres. The need to immediately get a handle on the wild fires is especially important nowadays. It is aircraft like all of the above that are helping us out here. It has been literally non-stop for days. They have even done night water drops with helicopters, and the fires are still raging.

a reply to: desert

We used to have Chalks airlines here in Miami.

The planes used to take off from the island across from all the cruise ships next to the port of Miami.

They would fly to and from Miami to the Bahamas.

My dad used to take me down to the island they took off from when I was a kid.

en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: grey580

Of course, Miami and Bimini and the Bahamas! Perfect area for these aircraft!

"During Prohibition, Chalk's was a major source of alcohol smuggled from the Bahamas to the United States." No doubt... and a good thing, too!

"The television show Miami Vice, a symbol of both Miami and the 1980s, featured a Chalk's seaplane in its opening credits." Ah, yes.


I got to thinking, there is an island right off ("26 miles across the sea".... in case anyone remembers that song) Southern California, Catalina Island, that I forgot about in my memories of local seaplanes. What a fun way to get there for a day or more pf play! Catalina Goose