747 water bombers

[maryjane48]

The converted 747-400 can hold more than 18,000 gallons of fire retardant. Between trips, it takes about 20 minutes to refill the plane for its next drop.



http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2017/10/ ... wildfires/

[bob vernon]

Bigger and bigger. It's just got to be better and better. Right?

It takes 20 minutes to fill it. That doesn't count the time from the airport to the fire and then back again.

These 747s are air tankers, not water bombers. Good for building a line of retardant to box in a fire. If there's a body of water nearby, small scooper water bombers can outperform these lumbering giants.

[GordonH]

Penticton airport has 6,000 ft runway, 747 need a 7,500 ft runway. So can only use Kamloops, it would disrupt commercial flights far to much to use YLW.

[GenesisGT]

A loaded 747-400 needs more runway then 7,500ft, the following requirements are also under ideal meteorological conditions. The required runway length must also include room for error.

Closest airport would be either Vancouver or Calgary.

A B747-400 need these rwy lengths for take-off at 870000 lbs or 394.545 kg empty weight is 181 120 kg

ISA sea level 10,560ft 3220m
ISA + 20 Degrees Celcius 11,480ft 3500m
ISA at 5000ft (1525m) 14,432ft 4400m

Landing Distance at 652000 lbs or 295760 kg

ISA sea level 6986ft 2130m
ISA + 20 Degrees Celcius 6986ft 2130m
ISA at 5000ft (1525m) 7905ft 2410m

[gman313]

The DC10 tankers are cool too - not feasible around here but still cool

[Dizzy1]

The B744 Supertanker only needs 8000 feet of runway seeing that it would be incredibly light with lots of less fuel and operational weight compared to a regularly scheduled B744. YLW has a runway length of 8900ft, so it would be within its operational limits.

[rookie314]

At 38 degress C? Probably not.

[Dizzy1]

At 38 degress C? Probably not.

Lighten the load more and its very doable.

[bob vernon]

Or use the same money and buy a fleet of Air Tractors and CL 415s. And move way more water, without lightening any loads. The Americans are obsessed with bigger and bigger wasting all that fuel lifting that much iron into the sky over and over.

[Dizzy1]

Or use the same money and buy a fleet of Air Tractors and CL 415s. And move way more water, without lightening any loads. The Americans are obsessed with bigger and bigger wasting all that fuel lifting that much iron into the sky over and over.

I'm sure that aircraft and such as these have a very important and useful role on the fire line, but in the same breath, as much as I'd love to see aircraft like this or the Martin Mars in action all the time, but their role is limited to a much smaller one then smaller aircraft.