Labels: arson, Carmel forest, Evergreen supertanker, forest fire, Haifa
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:07 PM
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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4 Comments:
Too bad osama/obama made the Israelis pay for it!
Holy crud! Evergreen sent the Supertanker? That is the coolest thing ever!
They took a freaking 747 and added internal tankage, and a dump valve system!
This really deserves the title SuperTanker! It is the biggest airborne tanker I believe! They only modified one or two such 747's!
This thing is amazing! Usually the planes are much much much smaller, and thus payload is tiny in comparison!
Evergreen is the company I believe that made the Dreamlifters (747's with those huge whale humps, tripling internal volume) that carry 787 fuselage segments. (I.e. a 787 barrel body can fit inside in width, though in segments, so not an entire length.
And 787 wings inside them.
They can dump all the water/fire retardant VERY fast as well. The valves are HUGE.
There is nothing small about this airplane!
Evergreen is a private company who is trying to lease it to fire fighters in the US, so I wonder if there is a price tag attached? Regardless, probably worth it, since there is nothing else like it in the world.
The closest thing would be a Russian AN-225 modified to fight fires, and none are so modified to my knowledge. (The AN-225 is the freaking big plane they only built a small number of, the AN-124 is more common and still large, but much smaller than a 747).
The main reason there is only one such tanker is that flying a 747 close to the ground, where the fire can generate huge up and down drafts is astonishingly dangerous.
There are some DC-10 based tankers in the US, but they too are very dangerous being so large.
Usually much smaller planes and helicopters are used. But the payload of the Supertanker is so much larger than anything else there is sometimes value to use it.
The other problem is that it takes longer to land and refuel than some of the other options.
There are sort of three types of firefighting aircraft.
Helicopters usually hover over a lake/ocean, drop their bucket, lift it out full and drop on the fire.
Some sea planes, sort of land on the water, and fill up as they speed along the surface, up the throttle and fly back to drop it off.
The third kind has to land at an airport and load back up.
Obviously the Supertanker has to land, reload, take off, dump it in maybe 1 minute, then land, and repeat. But its load is so much bigger than anything else out there, it is worth it on really big fires.
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