"FIREFIGHTING AIR TANKERS", an Alan Simmons/Firestorm HD Production

This short presentation features selected scenes from the eighty minute Alan Simmons HD Production of "Firefighting Airtankers". Five different types of fixed wing tankers are featured fighting wildfires in Southern California. A brief description of each tanker is included. There is an Air Ops section narrated by Tony Duprey, retired USFS. A bonus section delivers footage of vintage airtankers most of which have now been decommissioned.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• military
• air force
• engine
• airplanes
• weapons
• helicopter
• racing
• extreme sports
• motor sports
• howto
• extreme driving
• aviation
• video game
• cars
• vehicle
• warfare
• model vehicles
• offroad
• aircraft
• wildfire
• Alan Simmons
• Firestorm Videos
• USFS
• Los Angeles County Fire Dept.
• California fires
• California
• brush fires
• fires
• aviation history
• vintage airplanes
• wildland fires
• CAL FIRE
• captainbfd 16

[HerkMeck]

@QAFtuvok101 You still need a body of water...lots of it. That little ole flying boat of yours will be making alot of trips..I dont know about where you live...but the lakes here? Water source for most of the cities. Not to mention a couple of nuke plants. So yeah they are protected.

[Bmants]

@HerkMeck : how do you get this kind of info?

[chrispikeyp]

very interesting thanks

[thegeffc]

really informative and interesting

[QAFtuvok101]

@HerkMeck Anyone on a boat near a forest fire is NUTS.

"water body that is not protected" ??

What harm does it do to a lake to pick up a few thousand gallons of water ?

Fire retardant MAY be more effective (per weight) than water (that remains to be prooven), but you can put a lot more water per hour on a fire with a CL-415 filling up at a nearby lake than with a big land-based plane that has to go back to base to refill its tanks.

[HerkMeck]

@QAFtuvok101 Well if you have a water body, that is not protected, and has calm surface, and does not have a bunch of boats on it..then a water tanker is nice. But see that red stuff? it aint water......

[erikdesman360]

Incredible !!! A good old B-24.

[khav11]

look at all the blood lost !

[Be200USA]

Now is the time to add Beriev Be-200 to the fleet.

[QAFtuvok101]

On this video, everything before 3:57 and after 4:38 is BS.

Like firetrucks are designed specificaly for this task, you can't just convert any plane to fight fires, you must design a plane specificly for that task. That's what we did with the CL-215 (later replaced by the more powerfull CL-415).

I forgot : the CL-415 has a HUGE flaw : it's not "Made In The Good'Oll You Ess of Ayyyy". And if the US used them, the fires would be out in no time so the local firefighters would loose a lot of $.