Evergreen Aviation's 747 "supertanker" makes retardant air drops on California wildfires

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Evergreen Aviation's 747 "supertanker" makes retardant air drops on California wildfires

by Stuart Tomlinson, The Oregonian

 

Tuesday September 01, 2009, 11:21 AM

 

Evergreen Aviation's 747 "supertanker" makes retardant air drops on California wildfires

 

 

 

Mike McMillan/Alaska Division of Forestry

Evergreen Aviation's 747 "supertanker" makes a retardant drop last month on the Railbelt Complex of fires in Alaska.

A modified Boeing 747 owned by McMinnville-based Evergreen Aviation made its first fire retardant drop Monday in the continental U.S. over wildfires raging in California.

 

The massive aircraft -- which can dump 20,000 gallons of water or retardant in one giant splash or a series of smaller drops -- is flying for the California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection, said Evergreen spokesman, Jim Baynes.

 

"Thus far, reviews of the aircraft, effectiveness, and overall capability have been very positive," Baynes said.

 

The 747 made air drops on the Oak Glen fire, a 1,000 acre blaze burning in the San Bernadino National Forest in heavy chaparral, oak woodland and mixed pines, vegetation that has not burned since 1924, fire officials said.

 

 

Mike McMillan/Alaska Division of Forestry

Evergreen Aviation's 747 supertanker makes a retardant drop on the Railbelt Complex of fires in Alaska last month.

The aircraft made its first flight over a live fire earlier this summer, and the plane's Oregon owners hope it can be used to fight forest fires here soon.

 

The so-called "supertanker," just completed a publicity tour of Europe and Alaska, where it made its first drop on a live fire in Spain in mid-July.

 

During the trip, the plane also made two passes over a fire near Fairbanks, dropping over 20,000 gallons of retardant on the Railbelt Complex of fires.

 

Evergreen's air tanker is far larger and faster than the aging fleet of propeller-driven tankers regularly called in -- at great expense to agencies like the U.S. Forest Service -- to help corral forest fires in Oregon and elsewhere.

 

Evergreen officials said the company invested more than $50 million and spent 20,000 engineering hours to develop and modify the aircraft.

 

Its payload is about seven times the volume of the federal governments largest air tanker. It uses a pressurized system that allows the plane to drop its load through four nozzles from the bottom of the plane's rear fuselage from a higher, and therefore, safer altitude and also to make drops at night.

 

The plane can also reach fires fast, traveling 600 mph, at least twice the speed of other federal air tankers in the fleet. The swath of retardant on a full drop, Evergreen officials said, is up to three miles long.

 

Laura Graham of Evergreen Aviation said the tanker also made retardant runs on the giant 121,762 acre Station fire to the Northeast of Los Angeles, which has burned dozens of homes and threatens thousands more.

 

Graham said Evergreen was unable to get a helicopter in the air to film the drops, but the Los Angeles FOX Television affiliate videotaped the aircraft for 12 minutes.

 

 

 

 

"We couldn't have asked for better video,'' Graham said.

 

The aircraft is expected to fly again today, but was grounded this morning due to a temperature inversion that reduced visibilty and grounded the supertanker and many other aircraft.

 

-- Stuart Tomlinson; stuarttomlinson@news.oregonian.com

[Andrew Ong 1]

Yay!!!! Bring in the 747 Supertanker!

 

We needed it really badly because that 100,000+ acre Station Fire is causing too much trouble here in L.A.

 

The DC-10 Tanker and the numerous helicopters and aircraft, especially the two "Super Scoopers" aircraft that came from Canada are not enough to fight the blaze.

Edited September 1, 2009 by Andrew Ong