The U.S. Forest Service issued a solicitation on August 5 for one “amphibious water scooper aircraft”. It has a quick turnaround, with a response due date of August 19, 2013. Like some of the previous solicitations for air tankers, this one holds open the possibility of adding one additional aircraft during the contract period. The USFS expects to have the air tanker begin this calendar year, but the agency’s recent aircraft contracting history shows that may be a very optimistic goal. It took over 500 days to award the “next-gen” contracts.
The solicitation requires the following: amphibious and scooping capability, turbine engines, 180-knot cruise speed, 1,600-gallon capacity, and 7 days a week coverage. It also has to have previous approval by the Interagency Airtanker Board. The specs appear to limit the qualifying aircraft to only the CL-415. The BE-200 could possibly meet the operational specs, but does not have FAA or IAB approvals.
We are glad to see the requirement for 7 day a week coverage, instead of shutting down a firefighting resource one day a week like in some other air tanker contracts.
Thanks go out to John
Very cool maybe Aero flight can work their way in winning the L.A. County contract for 2 415s instead of going to Canada.
Good for Aero Flite. How about the 215T? Hmmm USFS?
There are 3 more aircraft waiting to be assembled.
Well looks like AEROFLITE maybe the first US operator with a CL-415. It’s about time. Several more to come??????
With a turnaround that quick, I would guess that someone (and probably only one) responded to the RFI with a CL-415 ready to go.
The solicitation suggests the start date is 9/15/13, so we may actually see one of these flying over fires this year.
There is 1 new Cl-415 sitting at North Bay On. painted in AeroFlite colors.
Looks like ConAir/AeroFlite has this one in the bag.
Word on the street is that Aero Flite has bought the last 415 from Bombardier.