I got a couple of e-mails last week from friends telling that the USFS has a solicitation for what they are calling Next Generation Tankers. As I understand it, next generation tankers means that the tankers must be turbine powered with a minimum retardant tank capacity of 2,400 gallons. A three to five gallon retardant tank capacity would be optimal. As for numbers of turbine tankers, it will be from 7 to 35 tankers. The contracts will be awarded in January of 2012 with mandatory availability starting in May of 2012.
Bill Gabbert of wildfire today did an excellent job on reporting on this on Dec 1 and Dec 2, including some additional information on the USFS solicitation, and a nice analysis of possibilities for these Next Generation tankers. There are some good comments on both of his articles as well. Good reading!
Included in the mix of possibilities will be the BAe-146, recall that Neptune Aviation has one (T-40) that has temporary approval from the Interagency Tanker Board. T-40 carries at least 3,000 gallons of retardant and
was working wildfires in Texas in the fall of 2011.
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