Using a 747 to Fight Wildfires

RotJ writes "It's fire season again. And the government just grounded 33 aging air tankers on Monday due to safety issues. Looking for a modern solution, Evergreen Aviation has come up with a 747 supertanker with 24,000 gallons of tank space onboard, which allows it to cover seven times the area of today's largest existing airtanker. In addition to fighting fires, it will be able to contain oil spills and 'perform challenging homeland security missions' like neutralizing chemical or biological attacks. And think of how many John Goodmans you could cover with fire retardant. Be sure to watch the videos."

Comments

Re:How Slow

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Then again, in a flight simulator I've flown the 747 straight up so you could approach the burn and then climb hard while dropping the water.


Do I even need to add anything to make you sound less credible? :)

Converstion inside the cockpit:

[Molina the Bofh]

Jeff, you moron ! That was not the water release button !! That was the emergency fuel dump button !

Re:Too Heavy?

[blancolioni]

Hi Tom. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that the 747 won't be completely full of water. I know what you're thinking -- that's crazy talk! But I have this funny feeling that just won't go away: maybe the people who think of this stuff have better things to do than make up stupid shit that doesn't work.

I'm just guessing, of course. It's quite possible that the plan involves filling a 747 up with water and watch it sit on the tarmac. That could also be fun.

Re:Speed

[steve_l]

they are very disconcerting to encounter in the mountains. I was driving up in scotland when this hercules crawled overhead at about 100' - it is a lot harder to avoid reacting badly to the sight of something that looks about to land on you, than it is it deal with a fighter plane going above you at that height -they are usually gone before you have time to notice.