If you haven’t seen this check it out….an Evergreen International 747 has been converted into a fire tanker.
By: John Boyle - 15th July 2004 at 16:16
747 Fire bomber
Nice video, thanks for posting it. I haven’t seen it before.
The water is probably red because of some sort of fire-killing product in it?
Any idea where this video has been made?
Normally air tankers drop “slurry” which not only kills the fire but also has chemicals to encourage new plant growth…a kind of fertilizer. Because of that, the stuff can be corrosive. The red color is used to mark previous drops.
I don’t know if the test drops used colored water or real slurry.
The tests were done at Evergreen’s base at Marana, Arizona just north of Tucson and better known as a ailriner storage field.
No word on any approval or plans to uses the plane operationally.
It would be something to see!
By: Jeanske_SN - 14th July 2004 at 20:34
Where will this aircraft be based? When a forest fire breaks out somewhere at the other side at the world, for example Greece recently, France and Australia last year, will it be there in what time?
By: Ren Frew - 14th July 2004 at 11:05
The water will be mixed with a flame retardant, for the test I believe they used coloured water. This is covered in another nice feature in the August Aircraft Illustrated (apologies for plugging a rival mag again).
By: Jeanske_SN - 14th July 2004 at 10:07
Nice video, thanks for posting it. I haven’t seen it before.
The water is probably red because of some sort of fire-killing product in it?
Any idea where this video has been made?
By: Pablo - 14th July 2004 at 00:50
Cool video – thanks. 24,000 gallons of water!
By: RIPConcorde - 14th July 2004 at 00:38
Wow, now that’s a lot of water! 😉
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July 13, 2004 at 11:57 pm