Victorville Supertanker has a wing up on the competition

VICTORVILLE — The supertanker offers several advantages over CAL FIRE’s existing fleet of 40 or so smaller fixed-wing planes and helicopters.
The first is in the amount of retardant it can deliver in one load, which is roughly six to 10 times the amount of the next-largest state resource according to Rick Hatton, managing partner of the jet’s owner, 10 Tanker Air Carrier. The tanker can drop 12,000 gallons of firefighting liquid in eight seconds.

Another advantage with the tanker is its accuracy, in that it can deliver a wider and more consistent path than multiple drops from smaller planes.
“We can drop a line over 50 feet wide and almost three-quarters of a mile long,” Hatton said. “It would take upwards of 10 smaller planes to cover the same area.”
Being a jet, the tanker can also get to fire sites much more quickly. This was evidenced last year, when the tanker had a record-setting day fighting the large fire that engulfed Big Bear Valley.
“We flew nine missions and dropped almost a million pounds of retardant in one day,” Hatton said proudly.
Lastly Hatton said the tanker adds an element of safety for pilots, in that the jet can drop its retardant from a bit higher altitude than smaller planes. The safety also increases since the tanker’s larger load means fewer take-offs and landings, which is when most in-flight incidents occur.
Still, Hatton said the supertanker is meant to augment and not replace the state’s smaller firefighting aircraft.

Supertanker: By the numbers
3: Crew members needed to fly the supertanker
12,000: Gallons of firefighting liquid the tanker can carry
8: Seconds it takes the tanker to drop its load
122: Days the tanker is typically active for fire season
10: Number of smaller aircraft it would take to cover the same territory as one drop from the tanker
2002: Year the tanker started development
132: Number of missions the tanker has flown so far
1,000,000: Largest number of gallons dropped by the tanker in one day

West Coast 911 firefighter news source - The Victorville Daily Press / photo by James Quigg