Fire Attacking DC-10 in Action
Wow, this is quite impressive. Growing up in the hills of Northern California I was quite used to seeing aircraft dropping fire retardant chemicals. Many of these aircraft I remember as being light bombers from the 40s and 50s such as the A-20 Havoc. Later I remember seeing helicopters, particularly the CH-54 Skycrane (I actually jumped those a couple times in the Army) and other smaller helicopters doing an awkward dance around the blaze to drop what seemed as simple as a bucket of water on the fire. Larger aircraft such as the venerable C-130 have been in use for many years, but I was surprised to learn that there is a DC-10 jetliner in use for attacking fires. Check out this video…
It’s a little puzzling at first when I think about the reasons for going the route of a DC-10. Jets tend to have much higher stall speeds than prop-driven aircraft and that means the pilots can’t slow down too much. Higher speed means less maneuverability, so I would think it’s harder to get them lined up for their drop and a bit of a safety issue with other aircraft in the area. But perhaps the DC-10 can hold a higher volume of fire retardant? One thing is for sure, it can get to the fire a lot faster than the other aircraft. Either way, my hat’s off to these brave pilots!
UPDATE: Holy moly! The DC-10 has been trumped by a 747!