Conair Turbo Firecat F-ZBMA/T24 formerly used on fire-bombing duties by France’s Sécurité Civile, has been earmarked as the subject of a return-to-flight project in private hands. The entire fleet of Sécurité Civile Turbo Firecats was grounded following an undercarriage failure on one aircraft in September 2019, and although two examples briefly returned to flight that November, the discovery of a further issue in the landing gear of another airframe led in February 2020 to an immediate order to withdraw the type from service, whereupon the remaining aircraft were put into storage at their Nîmes-Garons base in southern France.

Prior to that, a group of Sécurité Civile veterans, the Amicale des Pompiers du Ciel (Association of Aerial Firefighters), had already teamed up with the Musée Européen de l’Aviation de Chasse in Montélimar to investigate the possibility of reactivating F-ZBMA as an historic aircraft. The museum is experienced when it comes to operating a twin-turboprop warbird, having flown ex-Luftwaffe OV-10B Bronco F-AZKM for a quarter of a century. F-ZBMA started life in January 1957 as S2F-1 Tracker BuNo 136552 with the US Navy. Modified by Conair to Firecat fire-bomber standard, it joined the Sécurité Civile during 1985 as F-ZBEX, and in 2000 became the final aircraft on the fleet to undergo the Turbo Firecat conversion, replacing the original Wright R-1820 radials with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A turboprops. At that point it was re-registered F-ZBMA. If the effort is successful, the aeroplane would be flown by former Sécurité Civile crews. It will also require re-certification in the French authorities’ dedicated category for historic aircraft.