Update: Evergreen 747 and Martin Mars

I am interrupting my series on helitack with an update on the status of the Evergreen 747 super tanker and the Martin Mars.

When I wrote about the Evergreen 747 super tanker here, this very large air tanker had received interim certification from the Interagency Air Tanker Board, but was not yet under contract with a public fire fighting agency.

According to a July 9 article in the Press-Enterprise CAL FIRE signed a contract with Evergreen International Aviation for use in fighting wildfires. Recall that the Evergreen 747 carries up to 20,000 gallons of water or retardant. This is almost seven times the capacity of the Lockheed P-3 tankers capable of carrying up to 3,000 gallons of retardand. For a point of comparison, the DC-10 tankers carry 12,000 gallons of retardant while the Martin Mars can carry 7,200 gallons of water/foam.

Speaking of the Martin Mars, according to the Press-Enterprise, there is no word on if or when the Martin Mars will arrive at Lake Elsinore where the plan would be based under the agreement between Coulson Tankers, owners of the two Martin Mars tankers, and the US Forest Service. The Press_Enterprise article on the Martin Mars may be found here, and my earlier articles, including this one, on the Martin Mars can be found here.

Updated on August 3, 2015: Links to Press Enterprise articles left in article, but they no longer work. I did access these articles at the time I wrote this article in July, 2009. According to Bill Gabbert's May 2nd (2014) article on Fire Aviation it seems that  has Evergreen declared bankruptcy.