The 747 air tanker made two free drops on the Railbelt complex in Alaska on Friday. Evergreen, who built and operates the "Supertanker", made the drops at no cost to Fairbanks Area Forestry in an effort to demonstrate the capabilities of the aircraft. They made two drops, dispensing a total of 20,000 gallons of retardant.
This was the first time the aircraft has dropped on a live fire in North America. Last week they made a similar demonstration drop on a fire in Spain, which was the first time they had dropped on an actual fire..jpg)
In spite of the 747 drops, the Railbelt complex grew by 67,000 acres on Friday, for a new total of 443,447 burned acres.
Smokejumpers, hand crews, and hot shot crews are protecting 226 cabins that are threatened along the Tanana, Teklanika, Toklat and Kantishna Rivers. On Friday smokejumpers delivered an all terrain vehicle by paracargo to a crew at Totek Lake.
Smoke from fires in Alaska on Friday caused two Northwest Airlines flights scheduled to land in Fairbanks to be diverted to Anchorage.
Comments
that 747 shouldn't be discounted because it didn't put out the entire fire that burned 400,000 acres (which is 625 square miles), it saved an oil rig, and if used right i bet it could save homes too
The 747 is a non cost effective 20,000 gal tanker that can only drop 10,000 gal at a time because of pitch angle issues, and prehaps the pressure of the internal tanks.
to take the 747 is a 10 day minimum with a price tag of 1,118,000.00. No one would hire it so evergreen has been forced to fly it for free.
The Pilots and Maintenance are no doubt good folks doing the best they can with a flawed (at least at this time) product.
Louie, Im guessing you have never been around fires. Along with that it shows your lack of knowledge for operating costs in aviation. An average of $110,000 a day is not so bad for "ONLY" 10,000 gals... HAHA It awesome to see a company step up to build something that is going to be needed more and more.
If you all look here it will tell you that it drops 20 gallons, not just 10. It also shows how superior it is in every way to other fire fighting aircraft which have to refil fuel and retardant much more often (Therefore more expensive) whereas the 747 can do much more per trip.
www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/evergreen-supertanker/
Besides if a wildfire was heading for my house I know id rather have a 747 making a fire break 3 miles long than a few guys with fire trucks.
Tis expensive for the plane and fuel but when you think of the ammount of work it does compared to say 10 fire trucks its damn good....
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