B747-400 Supertanker (May 2019)

I have known about the Global Supertanker's B747-400 Supertanker, capable of carrying about 18,600 gallons of retardant (perhaps up to 19,200 gallons). She can also carry gel, water or foam. Global Supertanker has a nice page that may be found here where you can learn more about the Supertanker can do. I have only written about the 747 Supertanker on one previous occasion in January 2017 when the 747 Supertanker was deployed to Chile to work a major wildfire. Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today and Fire Aviation was embedded with the Suipertanker crew at that time and has written extensively about the 747 Supertanker (Bill's posts tagged Global Supertanker may be found at this link). In addition to Chile the 747 Supertanker flew has flown wildfires in California and Oregon. She may have had contracts to fly fires in other places that I do not know about.

At the time that I am writing this article, Global Supertanker has only one 747 Supertanker.

I was inspired to write this article thanks to an article with videos and a photo gallery from KATU that Mike Archer shared in a recent Wildfire News of the Day Newsletter.

The actual KATU (Oregon) article about the 747 Supertanker is a short piece that you can read quickly. However, the meat of this piece is in two videos about the 747 Supertanker that I am sharing below and a great photo gallery featuring the 747 Supertanker by KATU Photojournalist Rick Peavyhouse. There is no embed code, so you will have to the KATU article to watch the two videos, they are worth watching so I hope you take this opportunity to watch the two videos (allow five minutes).

Here is a July 2018 video from KPIX in the San Francisco Bay Area of California featuring the 747 SuperTanker.


Direct link to video from KPIX