Air Spray (Edmonton Alberta) celebrates 50 years

Direct link to video

Air Spray, out of Edmonton Alberta, has been in the aerial firefighting business for fifty years. Air Spray's roots began as Air Spray Ltd in 1954 as an Ag Aviation operator. Air Spray Ltd's first foray into aerial wildland firefighting began in 1958 with  a contract with Alberta using two Stearmans, later switching to TBM Avengers in 1961. Air Spray Ltd went out of business in 1996 and was resurrected and reincorporated in 1967 as Air Spray (1967) Ltd. To read more about the history of Air Spray, go to the Air Spray History page.

Air Spray's current air tanker fleet consists of

• BAE 146 
• Lockheed L188 Electra
• Air Tractor 802F
• Air Tractor Fire Boss

I don't know how long this will be freely and easily available on the web, but Skies Magazine has a nice spread about Air Spray in their May 2017 edition. As I post this on May 15th, Skies Magazine's May 2017 article on Air Spray (with nice photos) may be found here.

Congratulations to Air Spray on 50 years in the tanker biz. 

Air Tankers working wildfire in Canada (2015 season)

I am always on the prowl for interesting videos to embed and share with you, especially of Air Tankers and Helicopters working wildfires.

In the video that I am embedding below among the aircraft that you will see are: Lockheed L-188 Electra (Air Spray), Twin Commander 690 Birddog (Air Spray), Cessna Caravan Birddog, Air Tractor 802 Amphibious SEAT (Conair), and an Aerospatiale AS 350 B-2 Helicopter (see the information from HD Aviation who uploaded the video, here (and click on show more under the video description) for more information on the video.


Direct link to video

A-26 Tankers in Canada: Air Spray's A-26 fleet in 1994 (part 12 of 13)

I'd like to thank a friend of mine who told about a great article written by W.M. "Turbo" Tarling

in 1994, called Invaders from Red Deer.  Yes, as you might have guessed, the article is about Air Spray's A-26 Tankers in 1994. Turbo retired from the Canadian Air Force when he reached mandatory retirement age in 1982 with 11,645 flying hours in 50 different types of aircraft (go here for info on Turbo's flying time). After he retired he spent 17 seasons flying for Air Spray in Alberta where he flew the Douglas A-26. Turbo has a webpage with some articles, photo galleries and other information.

What I like about Invaders from Red Deer is that Turbo paints a portrait of a moment in time -- 1994 -- in Red Deer Alberta. After taking you through the history of Red Deer Industrial Airport, formerly RCAF Station Penfield. He then brings you up to 1994 where he introduces you to Air Spray's fleet that included 18 Douglas A-26 Invaders. He walks you through winter maintenance of Air Spray's aircraft, pilot refresher training, history and terminology of the A-26, walk around the A-26 outside and inside, flying the A-26 tanker, firefighting, and a photo gallery. 

The article is long, and well worth reading. I especially enjoyed Turbo's descriptions of flying the A-26. I felt like I was in the cockpit with him, as a quiet observer taking it all in. So, buckle up and enjoy the ride as you read Invaders from Red Deer.

Note: I wrote an article about Air Spray on February 10 where I wrote about a fire in one of Air Spray's hangers in 2000 that destroyed some A-26 tankers. The last year that Air Spray flew A-26 tankers was in 2004. Two photos of Air Spray A-26's may be found here and I shared some videos of Air Spray's A-26 tankers by MrFlyerboy101 on Feb. 17, Feb. 19, Feb. 21, and Feb. 26.

Updated on December 20, 2020: Unfortunately the links to "Turbo" Tarling's 1994 article, Invaders from Red Deer are now expired. A retired tanker pilot with whom I am no longer in contact in Canada told about Turbo's article at the time I was writing these articles on the Douglas A-26 Invader. If memory serves all the information in this article was on a webpage. I regret that at the time I wrote this post that I did not write a little about Turbo in this post and cite a couple of passages from his article. More recently, knowing that sometimes links go dead, I will write a little more in my post so that it may make sense if one or more links go dead. 

A-26 Tankers in Canada: flying fires in an A-26 (part 11 of 13)

I can't not share one more video from MrFlyerboy101, this one includes historic footage shot from the cockpit of an A-26 tanker flying fires in Alberta Canada. Enjoy!



Direct link to video

A-26 Tankers in Canada: enroute (part 9 of 13)

I close out the this part my series on A-26 tankers in Canada with a third video from MrFlyerBoy101 showing a group of Air Spray A-26 tankers and their birddog enroute to Ft. McMurray. Allow 14 minutes for the video (it might take a couple of minutes to load and the sound is a little funky, but you should be able to hear the pilots talking to each other over the radio.) 

Added on October 21, 2016: The video that I had originally shared here is no longer available so I have removed the code.

I will continue this series next week with four more articles. I will post a revised scheduled later this evening or tomorrow. 

A-26 Tankers in Canada: take-off (part 8 of 13)

Here is another video from MrFlyerBoy101 showing a group of Air Spray A-26 Tankers (1,3,14,12) and their Birddog taking off. The video ends with T-12 landing. Allow about five minutes for the video. According to the information supplied by MrFlyerBoy101accompanying the video, the personnel in the aircraft you will see are: Gordon Sherman (T-1), Arnie Schreder (T-3), Butch Foster (T-12), Ted Stenton (T-14) and Dave Poole (Rooster) in the Birdog.

direct link to video

A-26 Tankers in Canada: on the ramp (part 7 of 13)

Here is a video from MrFlyerBoy101 of some of Air Spray's A-26 tankers on the ramp at Smithers in British Columbia with a bit of fun thrown in.

direct link to video

A-26 Tankers in Canada: Air Spray A-26 Tankers 31 and 36 (part 6 of 13)

I'd like to thank Peter Mitchell who flew A-26 tankers (and other tankers) for both Air Spray and Conair some years back for two photos that he wanted me to share with you: photos of T-31 and T-36.

The Warbirds Registry has a page on the history of T-31 (serial # 44-35893) and T-36 (serial # 44-35456). Of note, Air Spray purchased both of these A-26 tankers from Conair. Air Spray bought the
A-26 (serial # 44-35456) that was to become T-36 from Conair in 1983. Before that she flew as Conair
T-26 from 1972 to 1983.

Air Spray T-36

A-26 (Serial # 44-35893) flew for Conair as T-31 from 1974 through 1982. Sometime in 1982, Conair sold her to Air Spray, where she kept her T-31 designation. She flew for another twenty years (give or take).

Air Spray T-31

A-26 Tankers in Canada: Operators -- Air Spray (part 4 of 13)

Air Spray whose corporate offices are in Edmonton, Alberta was founded in 1967, see Air Spray's history page.  Air Spray's founder, Don Hamilton, started the company with one A-26 and a Cessna 310 (birddog) aircraft.  Air Spray acquired one A-26 that was converted for firefighting in 1970 and paired with a Cessna 310 Bird Dog aircraft. Air Spray eventually had 18 A-26 tankers flying them the A-26 into the 2000s. Air Spray finally retired all of their remaining A-26 tankers after the end of the 2004 fire season (see an article by Ruud Leeuw on his 2006 visit to Air Spray's maintenance hanger in Red Deer Alberta, scroll down a bit past some photos of a couple of Lockheed L188 Electras where he writes about Air Spray's A-26 Invaders). Before I go on, some of you will recall that the Douglas A-26 Invader went through a couple of changes in her designation, being designated the B-26 from 1948 through 1962, I write about the changes in her military designation here.

In the course of reading up on Air Spray, I came across a nice article from the November/December 2009 edition of Wings on Air Spray called Position Report: Vintage planes dousing flames (A position report on Air Spray) by Frederick K. Larkin. Wings is an aviation magazine focusing on Canadian aviation.  learned a little more about the history of Air Spray thanks to Larkin's article. That is, David Harrington started the company that was to become Air Spray in 1954, focusing on crop dusting before moving into aerial fire fighting in the early 1960s. If you are interested in this early period in Air Spray's history and find yourself in Edmonton, Alberta with some time on your hands, the Provincial Archives of Alberta Canada has what is known as a fond (documents) from Mary Harrington, David's wife. According to Larkin, the company Harrington founded became Air Spray Ltd. in 1967. Harrington acquired a Douglas B-26 in 1969 (recall that the B-26 was later redesignated the A-26). That is when Don Hamilton, who later became CEO of Air Spray entered the picture. Hamilton acquired a 50 percent interest in this B-26 that was converted to firefighting configuration in 1970. Sometime later, Hamilton acquired the remaining interest in Air Spray becoming the sole owner of Air Spray.

I had heard about the 2000 hanger fire at Air Spray's maintenance hangar In Red Deer as I was doing research for these articles. On October 16, 2000 a fire started in one of Air Spray's maintenance hangers in Red Deer when sparks from an electrical cord that was being unplugged ignited some fuel. The hanger went up in flames and six aircraft were destroyed, including four A-26 Invaders (For more information see a short description of this fire from the Aviation Safety Network.

In my next couple of articles I'll focus on three tankers, one from Conair (Tanker 28), and two from Air Spray (Tankers 31 and 36).

Updated on February 11, 2014: As sometimes happens when I write series like this people contact me with additional information which I do my best to incorporate into the series that I am working on. I'd like to thank one of my tanker pilot friends from Canada who sent me some more information about Air Spray last night, some of which I incorporated into this article, and another piece he sent me will be incorporated into an article later in this series. As sometimes happens when I write series like this people contact me with additional information which I do my best to incorporate into the series that I am working on.