All
← Back to Squawk list
How to fight the California wildfires with a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet
Step inside (which you can do in the interactive 3-D model below) and you'll see that the upper floor looks pretty normal, with the cockpit and a few seats. Head down the stairs to the main floor, though, and you'll see the key changes its owner, Global Supertanker LLC, made when it converted the Japan Airlines passenger plane to a firefighter in 2016. (www.wired.com) More...
Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
This beast and the two DC-10's that they fly helped save my Mom's development outside Santa Rosa... There's some amazing video of it during that series of fires. And FWIW... my mom's 750,000 dollar home that was saved is a two bedroom bungalow on a slab... as are most in her development... So when comments about saving "million dollar" homes are made, I tend to chafe a bit... how much does a home have to be worth before they utilize something like this?
You are welcome to chafe - there is little 'affordable housing' left in California. My million-dollar home comment referred to potential insurance losses, although the newer homes in the urban-wildeland interface tend to be between 'higher end' and 'off scale'. The losses in the complex around Santa Rosa are estimated now north of 9 Billion. As Sentor Dirkson said, a billion here a billion there and soon we are talking real money. Tanker 944 and the CL-415's are both tools in the toolbox. Sometimes one is better than the other. Calif 2017 has needed the whole box, and then some.
Take a trip to any fire area in California (and probably elsewhere) and see the number of hand-painted "THANK YOU FIREFIGHTERS". Tankers help, but the down in the dirt hand crews actually do the stopping. That tends to be overlooked sometimes.
Take a trip to any fire area in California (and probably elsewhere) and see the number of hand-painted "THANK YOU FIREFIGHTERS". Tankers help, but the down in the dirt hand crews actually do the stopping. That tends to be overlooked sometimes.
Always respect your comments Joel. I was out just as she returned home to help clean up the superficial damage she experienced. Those on the ground stopped it 1/4 from her house and She made sure we found out who they were and I went with her to thank as many of them as we could find. And just those encamped around her development after she got home. I just know 944 was part of some of the Bennett Valley drops and after the wind shifted to southwesterly direction.
For background, this is a Colorado Springs based aircraft and company. Not related to the older Evergreen tanker attempt.
http://globalsupertanker.com/
http://globalsupertanker.com/
Not sure if that's the 979 evergreen jumbo doing the dumps. The DC10 tanker at KVCV is normally active for this. It went down under to Australia last summer for there bush fires fantastic to see it operating dumping retardant.
I wonder how it handles the massive uplift from the heat of the fire. Those engines take a while to spool up.
