(Download a display with more pictures
by clicking on any picture below.) Aerial Tanker displays |
(Download a display with more pictures
by clicking on any picture below.)
I read a report on Inciweb that 13 tankers, including the DC-10 and two SuperScoopers, fought the Corral Fire near Malibu on Saturday, November 24. I went to Fox Field near Lancaster on Sunday morning to photograph the tanker operations. When I arrived there were two Butler Aircraft Douglas DC-7s and four Neptune Aviation Services Lockheed P-2 Neptunes parked at the tanker station.
Aerial tankers have been fighting the Day Fire for many days. On Monday, September 25, the tanker action was concentrated over Santa Paula Canyon, just a few miles from Ojai. Lockheed P-3 Orions from the Santa Barbara Air Attack Station shared the sky with Lockheed P-2 Neptunes from the Fox Field Air Attack Station. Bell 205 and 212 Hueys paraded back and forth above the Santa Paula River.
Tankers fought the Day Fire from the Santa Barbara Air Attack Station for ten days, from Monday, September 18 to Wednesday September 27. Three Lockheed P-2 Neptunes and four Lockheed P-3 Orions were photographed during the period.
A wildfire broke out northwest of Goleta on Saturday, September 9. A variety of tankers and air attack airplanes arrived at the Santa Barbara Air Attack Station to fight the fire Saturday afternoon.
Three aerial tankers and a pair of Air Attack planes came to the Santa Barbara Air Attack Station to fight the Perkins Fire in the Los Padres National Forest on Monday, June 19. The fire was 100% contained by June 26.
Lockheed SP-2H Neptune, N355MA Tanker 55 made a visit to the Santa Barbara Air Attack Station in September 2005.
A variety of airplanes and helicopters helped
to extinguish the Cachuma Fire in Santa Barbara County from Tuesday May 4
to Friday May 7.
Turbulent winds forced tankers to drop their
loads of retardent alongside the Fox Field runway on October 26,
2003.
The Camino Fire broke out on the
crest of the Santa Ynez Mountains above Santa Barbara on August
15, 2002. I shot pictures of three helicopters, a Grumman S-2
Tracker, and a Douglas DC-4 fighting the fire.
Tankers fought the Wolf Fire from
the Santa Barbara Airport during the first half of June 2002.
Tankers that were assigned to fight
the Bouquet Canyon Fire from the Santa Barbara Airport on Sunday,
May 12, 2002.
Tankers that were assigned to fight
the Bouquet Canyon Fire from the Santa Barbara Airport on
Saturday, May 11, 2002.
Azalea Fire, Vandenberg
AFB, September 27, 1997
New
Cuyama Fire, July 3 and 4, 1996
Fifteen years ago, a plume of dense smoke erupted over the Santa Ynez Mountains on the afternoon of July 30, 1990. Several large air tankers fought the fire in the Santa Ynez Valley from the Goleta Tanker Station.
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses were once widely used to fight forest fires. In
recent years all the surviving B-17 tankers have been restored to stock military
configuration. Many of them remain airworthy. This display features photographs of
B-17 tankers taken from 1971 to 1984.
Hawkins & Powers of Greybull, Wyoming
maintained five Privateer tankers in airworthy condition until
recently. Tragically, tanker #123 shed a wing and crashed near
Estes Park, Colorado on July 18, 2002, killing its crew of two.
Hawkins-Powers has four remaining airworthy Privateers.
Numerous DC-6s and DC-7s have been converted to fight wild fires
over the years.
For over two decades, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Lockheed C-130 Hecules have fought wildfires with the Mobile Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS). In the late 1980s, former Air Force C-130As were transferred to civilian owners and modified with tanks to carry 3,000 gallons of fire retardent slurry. On June 17, 2002, Hawkins Powers C-130A N130HP, Tanker 130 suffered a main wing box failure and crashed as it was fighting a fire near Walker, California. The civilian C-130A tanker fleet was immediately grounded. Only military C-130s continue to be used in the role of firefighting tanker.
DC-10 Tanker Air Carrier, N450AX is the first DC-10 modified to fight wildfires. It can carry up to 12,000 gallons of water.
On Wednesday May 31, the Evergreen International 747-273C Supertanker flew from Boise, Idaho to the San Bernardino Airport with a load of 20,000 gallons of water that it dropped in a demonstration of its potential as a firefighter. This was the final demonstration in a tour that took the Supertanker to Sacramento California, the Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland, Scott Air Force Base Illinois, Tallahassee Florida, and Boise.
You can buy a 2008 Calendar featuring my photographs of aerial tankers in flight and fighting fires.
A dozen photos of aerial tankers:
Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress N17W Tanker 04, Santa Barbara, September 12, 1979
Douglas DC-7C N5903 Tanker 35, Santa Barbara, November 28, 1980
Douglas C-54E Cargomaster N460WA Tanker 151, Santa Ynez Valley, July 30, 1990
Air Force Reserve Lockheed C-130E Hercules 62-1081, Reno Stead, September 15, 1991
California Air National Guard C-130E Tanker 6, NAWS Pt. Mugu, April 25, 1998
Douglas C-54E Cargomaster N8502G Tanker 65, Santa Barbara Airport, May 5, 2004
Evergreen S-64E Skycrane N6979R Tanker 707, Santa Ynez Valley, May 7, 2004
Siller Brothers Sikosky S-61N N15456, Santa Ynez Valley, May 7, 2004
McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-10 10 Tanker Air Carrier Tanker 910, Goleta, November 4, 2005
Evergreen International Boeing 747 Supertanker, San Bernardino, May 31, 2006
Grumman S-2T Tracker N439DF Tanker 74, Santa Barbara Airport, June 19, 2006
Lockheed P2V-5 N1386C Tanker 44, Santa Barbara, June 19, 2006
Put a copy of the Aerial Tankers: 2008 Calendar in your Lulu.com shopping cart for $16.95.
Send a message to Brian.