Friday Fun: Airtanker History from 2010

I don't know about you, but I always enjoy learning about the history of aerial firefighting. I enjoyed this video from Airailimages about air tankers that were flying in 2010 and earlier.

Direct link to October 2023 video from Airailimages on YouTube

Airtanker History: Tribute to P-3 Orion

Direct link to post by Scorched Sky Productions on YouTube

A tribute to Aero Union's P-3 Orion. In late July of 2011, the US Forest Service cancelled their contract for Aeo Union's  P-3 Orions. See my July 30, 2011 and August 17, 2011 posts. Gone but not forgotten

In memory of PBY4 Tanker 123

 

PBY4 Tanker 123 crashed in the summer of 2002 while fighting the Big Elk Fire in Colorado. I remember reading about this crash a few years ago,  very sad. So on a bit of a sad note, I share a video called the Last Flight of 123 by Black Irish Band, gone but not forgotten. Let us not forget the danger involved in flying tankers and helicopters on wildfires. Kudos to all pilots and groundcrews

Coulson Aviation Retired the Phillippine Mars

 

Direct link to video from 12NewsAz on YouTube

The JRM Mars aircraft or flying boats were built in the early 1940s with delivery of the First Martin Mars in 1945. I believe that only seven were built. 

In 2007 Coulson Aviation bought two JRM-1 Mars aircraft, The Hawaii Mars iI and the Philippine Mars. These aircraft or flying boats were used for aerial wildland firefighting. The Hawaii Mars II saw its last stint fighting wildfires in 2015, when there were no buyers the Hawaii Mars II was retired to the British Columbia Aviation Museum a few months ago. The Philippine Mars required some maintenance overhauls before it could be retired to the Pima Air and Space Museum. The Aviationist has a nice article on the Philippine Mars and the other Martin Mars flying boats, go here to read this article (I hope this link works for you, my apologies if it does not.)

Direct link to video from Tobyn Burton Aviation Videos on YouTube

Direct link to video from AirRailImages on YouTube

As you can see from the videos that I have embedded above, the Philippine Mars took off from Sprout Lake in British Columbus on February 9th.

The legendary Philippine Mars is on her way to Arizona, and thanks to our partnership with SKYTRAC, you can track her journey in real time!  #coulsonaviation #philippinemartinmars 

📍 Track her progress here: https://t.co/Giv1mJwYdm pic.twitter.com/x65yHOpZeY

— Coulson Aviation (@CoulsonAviation) February 9, 2025

She arrived at Lake Pleasant Arizona on February 11th.

The Philippine Mars has arrived in Arizona! ✈️ After an incredible journey from Sproat Lake, she’s now en route to her forever home at the Pima Air & Space Museum. A historic chapter closes, but her legacy lives on. #philippinemars #aviationhistory #coulsonaviation pic.twitter.com/oVJs1iQ2Xn

— Coulson Aviation (@CoulsonAviation) February 12, 2025

The Philippine Mars was disassembled for transport to the Pima Air and Space Museum where it will be assembled before going on display at the museum go here for more information.

Friday Fun: TBM Avenger and Other Historic Aircraft Saluting Veterans

 For this week's Friday Fun I am sharing a nineteen minute video that I will embed below. The video is from Airshow Stuff Videos of a 2024 Airshow of a TMB Avenger gathering and salute to Veterans around Memorial Day 2024. I am not sure where this airshow was. TBM Avengers were used in aerial firefighting, my tagged articles on the Avenger may be found here (most recent first). See for example my July 26th 2010 introduction to a series on the TBM Avenger, please note that some of the links in this series are expired but with the help of a friend I hope that the introduction provides a brief overview of the Avenger. The World War Aviation Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado has a nice page with history and specifications of the TBM Avenger that may be found on this page. 

You will see other historic aircraft in this video.

Enjoy, the video is just over nineteen minutes

Direct link to video from AirShowStuffVideos on YouTube

79th Anniversary of Lockheed P2 Neptune

Direct link to video from Weapons Detective on YouTube 

Direct link to video from Scorched Sky Productions on YouTube

I lucked out in looking at today's post from Neptune Aviation on  Facebook where they shared that today, May 17th, is the 79th anniversary of the Lockheed P2 Neptune. A great aircraft who did good service during the Cold War and later as an air tanker. I have many posts on the Lockheed P2V tanker that you may find under this tag. I will never forget Neptune Aviations P2V Tankers, I cut my teeth on these Air Tankers when I started this blog in 2009, see this post where I offered my reflections on this Tanker. Neptune Aviation's last P2V Air Tanker was retired in October 2017. 

Friday Fun: Flying Wildfires in a Lockheed P2V

Enjoy this video from Bob Webb that I am embedding. Bob calls this video "a review of slurry bomber firefighting missions in a Lockheed P2V." The time frame is from 2015 to 2017.  Allow about 6.5 minutes to watch the video.

Direct link to video from Bob Webb on YouTube

Friday Fun: A Look Back at Airtankers in 1987

 I wanted to dig into my saved bookmarks of video footage of historic airtankers to share with you for today's Friday Fun. If you are traveling this holiday weekend, I wish you safe travels and an enjoyable weekend.

This footage is courtesy of Brian Lockett of Air-and-Space.com. According to his family, see their Facebook on his Facebook page, he passed away on June 2, 2021 (you may need to be logged on to Facebook). His family is maintaining his website which showcases his photographs and where you can find information about his books.

Allow just under 15 minutes to watch this video shot in October, 1987 at Santa Barbara Airport. According to the description of this video, you will see the following airtankers: Douglas C-54 Skymaster, Lockheed P2V Neptune, Consolidated P4Y-2 and Fairchild C-123 Provider.

Direct link to video by Brian Lockett on YouTube

Friday Fun: Air Tanker History (1970s)

 It is Friday and I thought it would be fun to share a video of some now historic air tankers. So I went and looked in my collection of saved videos and found this nice video that airailimages edited from a video/dvd book Fire Bombers in Action by frederick A. Johnsen (copyright 2010) showcasing some airtankers from the 1970s. I do have the book/dvd although at the moment I don't have a DVD player, I recommend it. Among the air tankers you will see are a B-17F, Consolidated PBY-6A, B-17G, PB4Y-2. Enjoy.

Direct link to video uploaded by airailimages on YouTube

Airtankers from 2010

 I have been thinking recently of the Airtankers that were still flying when I started this blog in 2009, in particular the P2V from Neptune Aviation and the Lockheed P-3 Orion from Aero Union. Both are no longer flying. The last P2V was retired a couple of years ago and Lockheed shut down operations about 11 years ago. I wanted to share a video featuring these tankers and remembered a video by Alan Simmons.

In this eight minute video by Alan Simmons shot around 2009 and 2010 you will see the Grumman S2-T flown by CAL Fire (still in service), P2V Neptune, Lockheed P-3 Orion, Canadair CL-215 and 415 (I belive the 415 is still in service, not sure about the 215), and a DC-10 tanker (the DC-10 tanker in this video is no longer flying but 10 Tanker Carrier has a fleet DC-10 tankers flying fires). Alan ends with a section of what were historic tankers at the time he shot this video. Some of you may remember this video as I have shared it here before on a couple of occasions. It is worth seeing again.

Direct link to video by Alan Simmons on YouTube

Wildfire History: Lockheed P2V airtanker operations in 2017.

 I got side tracked yesterday with some unexpected business and was unable to make my usual Wednesday blog entry. I will be tied up with that same business this afternoon but I diid want to take a few moments to post. In this case, this is a video from Bob Webb showing the pilots view of air operations in steep terrain behind a lead plane. Enjoy

Direct link to video on YouTube from Bob Webb

Memories of air tankers in 2009 (part 2 of 2)

Direct link to video by Bob Webb on YouTube

Among the air tankers that I watched on either news streaming or YouTube in the early days of my blog in 2009 into 2010 was the Lockheed P2-V air tankers that were then under contract with Neptune Aviation. By 2017 Neptune had retired the last of their P2-V air tankers from active service, most are now in museum's around the United States. Neptune Aviation has always had a nice website chock full of information, the have a webpage about their history and a list of museums that have one or two of Neptune's historic P2-V I hope to see one of these historic air tankers in person one day. 

Neptune is now flying BAe-146 air tankers on contract with the US Forest Fire Service, other state agencies and internationally, go here for more information. I will write more about Neptune's BAe-146 air tankers sometime this week.

I close with a tribute to the P2-Vs upon the retirement of the last of Neptunes active P2-V's in 2017. This video is by Scorched Sky Productions, I shared this video and the video from Bob Webb in previous posts on my blog.

Direct link to video by Scorched Sky Productions on YouTube

Memories of air tankers in 2009 (part 1 of 2)

 It was approximately 14 years ago, August of 2008, when I first became interested in learning more about wildland firefighting. The focus of those early entries were on what I was learning. In early 2009 I began to learn about airtanker operations thanks to the help of a few friends, current and former airtanker pilots. I took you along as I learned about the airtanker business and learned about the contractors that then had contracts with the U.S. Forest Service. I cut my teeth in 2009 into 2010 by watching live stream and other videos of Aero Union's P-3's, 10 Tanker Corp's DC-10, and Evergreen's 747 tanker flying fires. most of the videos that I am embedding below were previously shared on my blog.

In 2009, Tanker 910, operated by 10 Tanker Corp was under contract with CAL Fire, see my May 16, 2009 article for more information. Tanker 910 was capable of carrying up to 12,000 gallons of retardant though I suspect that most of the time she carried less retardant. I enjoyed watching her lay down a line of retardant. 

Direct link to 2008 video uploaded by palealien on YouTube

10 Tanker Corp is still around in 2022 and continues to fly DC 10 air tankers, download their fact sheet for more information. 10 Tanker has four DC 10 tankers -- T 910, 911, 912, and 914 -- in their fleet. Her current retardant capacity is 9,400 gallons. I believe that 10 tanker corp has contracts with the US Forest Service as well as State agencies.

I will never forget watching Evergreen's 747 tanker link up and drop a long line of retardant on the 2009 Station Fire in southern California. You will have to take my word for this as the video is no longer available. I recall watching a live stream of this drop on one of the Southern California TV News outlets, awesome. While that video that so impressed me is no longer available, check out this 2009 video 

Direct link to video from elvladyman on YouTube

According Bill Gabbert's May 2, 2014 Fire Aviation post Evergreen's 747 was not under contract in 2014. Sometime later, I don't recall exactly when and I have no link at the moment, I believe that this 747 was no longer operated by Evergreen.  A newer 747 tanker, T-944,  operated by 747 supertanker  began operations sometime in 2017 and had some contracts but ceased operations in April 2021, see Bill Gabbert's April 23, 2021 article. On September 3, 2021 Bill Gabbert reported that a 747 tanker, owned by Logistic Air, is expected to return to service for wildland firefighting by late 2022, see Bill's May 4, 2022 for updated information.

Finally, I enjoyed watching AeroUnion's P-3 tanker (3,000 gallon retardant capacity) fly fires. Sadly, the U.S. Forest Service terminated its contract with Aero Union for their P-3's in August 2011 and shut down operations a few months later after selling off their assets including some of their P-3s (see my January 18, 2012 article)

Enjoy this tribute to the P-3 tanker from Scorched Sky Productions.

Direct link to video on YouTube from Scorched Sky Productions

Another air tanker company, Neptune Aviation had contracts with the US Forest Service in 2009 and is still in business  flying airtankers. I will write about Neptune Aviation on August 22. Stay Tuned

Historical Air Tankers: Martin Mars

The Martin Mars will always be a special lady, she did a lot of good work over many years flying in support of wildland firefighters on the ground. I first met the Martin Mars, so to speak, fairly early on in my interest in aerial wildland firefighting through a friend of mine who introduced me to her through our e-mail correspondence. I first wrote about her in 2009, see for example this post from May 2009 (a couple of the links are dead, that happens). I believe, that I first saw her fly a fire through a live stream of aerial operations over the Station Fire in California (2009). She was a sight to behold and I was mesmerized watching her on live stream. 

On some Fridays I like to have what I call Friday Fun where I post an aviation video(s) I enjoy. For today's Friday Fun I am sharing a couple of videos of the Martin Mars.

Direct link to video from Airailimages on Youtube

Direct link to video on Youtube from Niceprguy2

Air Tanker History: Neptune Aviation's P2-V Lockheed Tanker 14 (retired Oct. 2017)

I am in the mood for a little bit of recent tanker history and remembered this video, by Bob Webb featuring the now retired Tanker 14. See my April 1st article for a little more about the retirement of Neptune's P2-V tankers. Enjoy, the video is a little over eight minutes long.

Direct link to You Tube video by Bob Webb

Reflections on the Lockheed P2-V Air Tanker

In regards to large air tankers, especially early on, I cut my teeth watching the Lockheed P-3 Orion and the Lockheed P2-V fly fires, for specifications see this April 2009 article. I have benefitted from have the chance to correspond with a couple of former pilots of the P2-V. Through watching videos of the P2-V tankers in action along with my correspondence with a couple of her former pilots, I gained a little familiarity with these air tankers. Through my correspondence with P2-V and other tanker pilots, I grew to appreciate how complicated it is to fly air tankers.

Neptune Aviation was the last contractor to have P2-Vs on national contract here in the United States. The last of their P2-Vs were retired from aerial firefighting in 2017, many are in museums, see Neptune Aviation Yesterday for more information. Neptune Aviation has a nice photo gallery, called P2V retirement, that you may enjoying viewing.

To the P2-V air tankers and your pilots, your sacrifices and service in fighting wildfires from the air in aid of the wildland firefighters on the ground will not be forgotten.


Direct link to video from Scorched Sky Productions on Youtube

Air tankers circa 2010

Recently I have been writing some reflection pieces with embedded videos of some tankers and helicopters that I learned of over ten years ago when I decided to devote this blog to aerial wildland firefighting and related concerns. My latest post in this series was on December 16th when I wrote the first of what I hope to be at least a couple of posts on CAL FIRE's S2-T tanker. I hope to return to writing about the S2-T tanker either the end of this week or early next week.

Today I am sharing a video I first learned about nine years ago by Alan Simmons. Alan shoots videos of structure fires,wildland fires, EMS, tankers, etc. You may find his videos for sale on FirestormvideosHD. I learned of Alan's videos nine years ago when I came upon highlights from his longer 80 minute 2010 video on Firefighting Air Tankers. I do have this DVD, but due to technical issues I have not been able to watch it recently. As I have recently been writing about some of the tankers that Alan showcases in his eight minute highlight video from (2010) Firefighting Air Tankers, I thought that I would share this with you.

Enjoy.



Direct link to Alan Simmon's eight minute video, Firefighting Air Tankers

Tanker history: Martin Mars dropping on the 2009 Station Fire

In the late summer of 2009, the Station Fire burned 160,577 acres, two firefighters died and 89 residences were destroyed. I have some articles tagged Station Fire here, and Wikipedia has a summary of the Station Fire here. The fire burned some television antennas and equipment on the top of Mt. Wilson. I spent quite a few hours watching live stream from Los Angeles media of the air operations over Mt. Wilson. I spent one night being afraid that the Mt. Wilson observatory might be destroyed or severely damaged, that did not happen. One of the now historic air tankers that dropped on Mt. Wilson was the Martin Mars. The Martin Mars is, in all likely hood retired from firefighting operations. I spent several minutes watching the live stream of her drop on Mt. Wilson, elegance in action. A very special tanker.

The video below may or may not be the same live stream that I saw almost ten years ago, but that does not matter. Enjoy this video, a little over six minutes of the Martin Mars preparing to drop and then dropping on Mt. Wilson during the Station Fire in late August 2009.


Direct link to video

Reflections on learning about aerial firefighting almost 10 years ago

After  i wrote about P-2 Neptune tankers the other day, I spent some time reflecting on first learning about the business of aerial firefighting nine and ten years ago. I am eternally grateful to some now good friends who helped me learn about the business. I spent a lot of time watching live stream coverage of some of the larger wildfires that were burning in southern California in mid to late 2009. A couple of times, I was watching the live stream as I was exchanging e-mails with one of my former tanker pilot friends. He would share a little about what was going on. I enjoyed seeing the tankers and helos in action, working to help the wildland firefighters on the ground. As they say, one picture is worth a thousand words. The video that I am sharing below is from Alan Simmons of Firestorm HD Production. He uploaded the video to Youtube in April 2010. I believe that at least some of the fire footage is from 2009, perhaps there is footage of some of the wildfires that I was following in 2009. Alan’s footage is a highlight video from a longer DVD that he put out, go here for more information on the video that is available for purchase only. 

I love watching videos like Alan’s of tankers working a wildfire. Elegance in action. What they do is very dangerous. Please remember that if it is very windy or the smoke is very bad tankers and helicopters may not be flying the fire because it is not safe to do so.

The video from Alan Simmons that I have embedded below has about eight minutes of highlights from his 80 minute video. In the first half, you will see footage of the S-2T, P-2 Neptunes, P-3 Orion, Canadair 215/415, and the DC-10. The final three or four minutes includes footage from 1999 of now historic tankers including some footage of T-123 which crashed in 2002.

Direct link to video from Alan Simmons on Youtube

Historic Airtankers - CAL FIRE S2A Airtankers (1973)

Enjoying a little downtime today, Presidents Day in America. Enjoy this video from 1973 about the Grumman S2-A tankers that began to serve what was then the California Division of Forestry (CDF) in 1973. It is entirely possible that I have embedded this video at some point. And if so, it is worth sharing again. In the later half of this footage you will see some footage of TBM single engine tankers that flew for the CDF before the CDF acquired the Grumman S3A tankers and some Lynch B26 tankers.

I wrote about the Grumman S2-A (and the S2-T's), the last of which flew in 2005 here, they were replaced by the S2-T tankers which are still flying. I have several posts on the TBM Avenger that I you may read here, with the latest post at the top (sorry).

Direct link to video