The last DC-3 operated by the U.S. Forest Service retired this week following a ceremony at the Missoula smokejumper base.
The last U.S. Forest Service DC-3 departs from Missoula December 10, 2015 after retiring from smokejumper duty. Image by Jason Junes.
Known to the jumpers it hauled as Jump 15, it took off December 10 from Missoula and a flew to McClellan Airfield in Sacramento at 16,000 feet and 200 mph, unpressurized of course. There it will await an auction and a new owner.
The 71-year old aircraft, first operated by the Royal Air Force, was manufactured as World War II was winding down. The radial piston engines were replaced 24 years ago with turbines by Basler extending its life while providing more reliability and less maintenance. The aircraft’s sister, Jump-42, another DC-3, retired in November, 2012.
Approximately 607 DC-3s were built between 1936 and 1942. At that time their cost was $79,000. Most of them had 14-cylinder Pratt and Whitney radial engines.
With the two DC-3s now gone, the smokejumpers will be using some of the 15 C-23B Sherpa aircraft they received from the Army and two De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otters. The Forest Service has been contracting for two additional Twin Otters but those will be phased out as the C-23Bs transition into the fleet after going through modifications, maintenance, and painting.
In response to drone activity over the Japanese Prime Minister’s office, including one that landed on the roof carrying small amounts of radioactive material, the Tokyo police force will be deploying a camera-equipped drone-catching drone. It has a net carried below that is two meters by three meters intended to snare the offending aircraft.
Known in the United States as Tanker 910, the aircraft is one of four large air tankers from North America currently under contract in Australia for their 2015/2016 bushfire season. Down under they call it the Southern Belle.
If I’m interpreting correctly the data at the top-right in this first video by the NSW RFS, the tanker is about 15 to 20 km from the camera. Shot at the Buddah Creek Fire near Hawkesbury, it was uploaded to YouTube on December 10.
The next video shows the DC 10 dropping on the Maddens Plain Fire December 11, 2015. NSW RFS video by Kallie Rayner.
More information about the bushfires in New South Wales is at Wildfire Today.
The flame thrower mounted on the drone above looks scary as hell — even more so than the one being developed at the University of Nebraska that uses plastic spheres to ignite fires.
The aircraft below can carry a dry chemical fire extinguisher or a liquid.
Obviously neither of these appears to be practical in their current state, however I wonder what we might see in five to ten years.
One of the many obstacles to overcome is the rotor wash which would have a significant effect while either igniting a fire or trying to suppress it. This is not a problem for the University of Nebraska version since the plastic spheres only burst into flame about half a minute after being dispensed, after the helicopter has left the area.
The airport at Estevan, Saskatchewan will be set up as a temporary air tanker base for Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment’s firefighting aircraft.
Located 4 miles north of Estevan and 14 miles north of the US/Canadian border, it will be used for fires in the southern parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and in North Dakota and Montana.
The airport, officially known as Estevan Regional Aerodrome (CYEN), recently had its runways resurfaced; the longest one is 5,003 feet.
The plan is to bring in two or three 5,000-gallon tanks and a retardant mixing system with pumps to reload air tankers.
The facility will be evaluated over the next two years to determine if the ministry will make the base permanent. If they do, they will invest more money into infrastructure.
Saskatchewan recently joined the Great Plains Interstate Fire Compact, a bilateral agreement that facilitates the sharing of ground and air firefighting resources among six U.S. states and Saskatchewan. In September the Canadian province sent two aircraft, a CV-580A air tanker and a Turbo Commander Bird Dog, on site visits to Estevan and Pierre, South Dakota to check out the airports and meet the local fire personnel.
Estevan airport, four miles north of Estevan, Saskatchewan.
The Stalker XE UAS directed the unmanned K-MAX cargo helicopter (N131KA) to conduct water drops at a precise location to extinguish a fire. The Stalker XE and K-MAX operated in collaboration with a prototype UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system, which provides essential capabilities to enable safe UAS operations.
In October Lockheed Martin demonstrated for wildland fire officials in the Boise area the use of a remotely-piloted K-MAX helicopter for dropping water on a simulated fire and delivering externally-carried cargo. Now the company is developing a system that uses a small drone to work with the K-MAX to communicate with Air Traffic Control in real time.
Below is the text of a news release.
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“Lockheed Martin demonstrated its ability to integrate unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations into the National Airspace System (NAS) using its prototype UAS Traffic Management (UTM) capabilities, the company said in a Dec. 2 release.
During the demonstration on Nov. 18, the Stalker XE UAS provided data and a precise geolocation to the unmanned K-MAX cargo helicopter, which conducted water drops to extinguish a fire, while the UTM tracked the UAS operations and communicated with Air Traffic Control in real time.
“This demonstration represents the path forward for flying UAS in the NAS using Flight Service-based UTM capabilities to extend the technology and systems that air traffic controllers know and understand,” Paul Engola, vice president, Transportation & Financial Solutions, said in the release. “We were able to successfully modify the existing K-MAX and Stalker XE ground control software to connect to the UTM services and conduct the firefighting mission.”
For more than 80 years, manned aircraft have supported firefighting missions during daylight hours. Because unmanned K-MAX can fly day and night, in all weather, its insertion into firefighting operations offers the potential to triple the amount of time ground firefighters can receive aerial support.
The Stalker XE UAS worked in tandem with K-MAX to identify hot spots and fire intensity with its electro-optical, infrared camera. Its stable, high definition imaging capabilities enable day and night operations. Powered by a ruggedized solid oxide fuel cell, Stalker XE achieves more than eight hours of flight endurance.”
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Image produced by Lockheed Martin of a wildland firefighter and a K-MAX helicopter. Click to enlarge. (It is obviously a created rather than an actual image, since the shadows of the firefighter and the helicopter go in opposite directions.)
