Above: Two Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft fitted with slip-in 13,000-gallon air tanker conversion modules. Screenshot from the video.
This video features the Russian-made Ilyushin IL-76 which can be equipped with a slip-in 11,574-gallon tank, converting it into an air tanker.
On July 1, 2016 an IL-76 crashed while fighting a wildfire in the Siberian district of Kachug, 9 km southeast of Rybny Uyan. It had a crew of 10 and no survivors were found.
During the 1,500,000-acre Fort McMurray Fire that burned 2,400 homes in Alberta last summer, Russia offered the use of their IL-76 air tankers, but the proposal was not accepted.
The Daily Mail has an interesting video of an IL-76 making a drop on a very small fire from a low altitude.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Skip.
Everything I’ve read says the IL-76 has an 88,000 lb payload limit.
Maybe that’s why the other one crashed…