Only 1 of 7 next-generation tankers flying as fires burn

As fire season heats up, the U.S. Forest Service remains able to use only one of seven large, state-of-the-art air tanker planes it contracted last month to fight wildfires. The other six planes have yet to be certified, a process that could take as many as two more months under the contract terms, according to U.S Forest Service spokesman Mike Ferris at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. The Forest Service announced May 6 it was contracting five companies for the seven “next-generation” air tankers. The Forest Service has awarded the next-generation contracts twice in the past year — the agency did so last year, but started the process over after two companies that didn’t get contracts filed protests. One of the protesters was 10 Tanker Air Carrier, which flies two DC-10 passenger jets modified to drop fire retardant. The company won a contract in the latest round to fly one of its planes. The DC-10 is the only plane flying under the next-generation contract. The plane dropped slurry on the recent fires in Los Angeles County and lately has been fighting fires in New Mexico. The so-called “next-generation” turboprop and jet planes are bigger and faster than air tankers previously contracted by the Forest Service. The planes must be able to carry at least 3,000 gallons of slurry and fly at least 350 mph. The certification process to be completed by four of the five companies includes proving the planes’ slurry tanks. The planes also must be approved for field trials and be issued Federal Aviation Administration certificates, according to Ferris...more