RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. -- A Boeing 747 Supertanker has been showing off its firefighting ability to officials from California and the federal government.James Baynes, project manager for Evergreen International Aviation, said the $50 million aircraft carries twice as much fire retardant as DC-10s. Those are the largest firefighting aircraft currently under contract in California.
The Supertanker did a demonstration flight Thursday at McClellan Airfield.
Evergreen, based in McMinnville, Ore., plans to convert as many as 10 of the retired passenger jets to fight fires worldwide.
"We're dropping 20,00 gallons. A lot of the current fleet drop around 2,500 gallons," Jim Baynes from Evergreen Supertankers said. "So we're about 8 to 10 times the capacity of current airtankers."
Federal and state officials are evaluating the Supertanker. California fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said the aircraft can drop a line of retardant up to three miles long but cannot navigate tight mountain canyons.
The aircraft is costly -- about $3 million to use it for service or to keep it on standby.
Source: KCRA Channel 3
The USFS has decided to cancel the Martin MARS water tanker contract due to political pressure initiated by Evergreen. Evergreen discovered that the Martin MARS received a contract from the USFS to support the State of California and was to be based out of Lake Elsinore. Evergreen used the full force of it's insider political lobbying teams to force the USFS to find some way to force Coulson (Martin MARS) to default on the contract. The USFS bowed to Evergreen pressure and did just that. They initiated action to find Coulson in default of the contract. The USFS used the nebulous Continuing Airworthness Program as the "technical default" to cancel the Martin MARs for California. Coulson is fully in compliance with the CAP as much as any other air tanker company and years ahead of Evergreen - but unless Evergreen gets a contract nobody else gets one and the USFS rolled over and let the tail wag the dog again. The real losers in this political game by USFS and Evergreen are the citizens of California. At a time when California needs help the most the USFS at the very last minute cancelled a federally funded (would not cost CA a penny) firefighting resource that would stand guard to protect the lives and property of the citizens of California. So - thank you Evergreen - and most of all Thank you USFS for leaving California more vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires this season when we need help the most. AlYackey@gmail.com
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