The first of the Very Large Airtankers (VLAT) put in service is tanker 910, first seeing service on a call when needed (CWN) contract with CAL FIRE in 2006 where it flew retardant drop missions on fires in southern California and one fire in Washington State. Tanker 910 is one of the DC-10 family of passenger jets. The first DC-10, designed and built by the Douglas Aircraft Company of Long Beach, CA, now the Long Beach Division of Boeing Commercial Airlines.
Starting in 2007, tanker 910 is under an exclusive use contract with CAL FIRE from June 15 through October 15.
Tanker 910 was modified and tested over four years by 10 Tanker Air Carrier with mostly private investment capital. Three external retardant tanks are mounted along the bottom center of the aircraft, capable of holding 12,000 gallons of retardant (50 tons!) capable of dropping a line of retardant in about eight seconds. Typical drop height is 500 ft. above ground level at about 170 mph. A crew of three -- pilot, co-pilot, and flight engineer -- flies the plane working with a lead plane when drops are made. They are not as maneuverable as CAL FIRE’s S-2T working on ridge tops or flat lands. But as they carry 12,000 gallons of retardant to the S-2T’s 1,200 gallons, one of the advantages of the DC-10 is that they can save the S-2T’s for initial attack.
See this page for more specs and technical information on the aircraft. CAL FIRE’s DC-10 tanker fact sheet (requires a pdf viewer) may be found here. Wikipedia’s article on tanker 910 may be found here.
10 Tanker Air Carrier now has a second DC-10 tanker, tanker 911 that was available earlier this year for fire fighting duty. It saw service in the recent Jesusita fire.
My next post: more pictures and video of the DC-10 tankers.
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