U.S. Forest Service to Fly Next Generation Tankers

After weeks of limbo, on Thursday the U.S. Forest Service went from having no next-generation air tankers to three, one of which will be fighting wildfire in California Saturday morning. Rick Hatton, president of 10 Air Tanker Carrier, said Friday that Forest Service officials ordered his company's DC-10 -- a "very large air tanker" to San Bernadino to help douse a fire. Two other companies, Minden Air Corporation and Coulson Aircrane (USA) Inc. were also given five-year contracts with the federal fighting agency, said Bruce Palmer, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center, a branch of the Forest Service. When the DC-10 deploys on Saturday it will become the first next-generation air tanker to join a federal fire fight, after nearly two years of industry squabbles over the coveted contracts...more