@coldjoint,
It is a good question about the cost of operating the aircraft and how much it can do. If it can carry thousands of gallons more than the standard aircraft, I know from my time in the Army, that Chinooks help in firefighting tasks with different size "bambi buckets", and they are big, but nothing close to the 19,000 gallons of the supertanker. How many aircraft can it replace with that size? Lets average 4000 gallons per trip, 5 trips to drop 1000 extra gallons. What's the on the ground time for 5 trips, that includes fuel for the craft and tank refill if they are fixed wing aircraft. Bambi drops don't require a landing time, just a space big enough for the aircraft to fit down into so they can dip the bucket in a water source and fly off again. $250,000 a day, 30 minutes ground time for full refill. Lets figure an hour total round trip/ground time and it almost starts to look like the bigger craft is the better solution. This strikes me as more politics than cost efficiency
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Quote:In May, the Forest Service issued a request for new airtankers, but said it would only give contracts to planes with a dispensing capacity of between 3,000 and 5,000 gallons. The supertanker can drop more than 19,000 gallons of water or retardant at a time.
