Those planes that drop water out the bottom...

[Yachtworker]

I'm sorry but I have no idea of what they are called and equally sorry for the quality of the photos, but I was down in La Ciotat for work today and 3 of these were doing circuits all morning, obviously training for summer, but best to be ready as there has been no rain for weeks and it was already 17 dgrees today!







they were dumping all the water 30 seconds after leaving the water but were doing it for hours.

[tight5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-215

[Simpo Two]

Call that a waterbomber?

THIS is a waterbomber:

[TvrTone]

Quickly putting my anorak on and leaping in before Eric mc Arrives on the scene, it is actually a Bombardier 415 which is the turbo prop version of the cl-215

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_415

Tony

[tank slapper]

Simpo Two said:

Call that a waterbomber?

THIS is a waterbomber:

If you are going to drop water do it properly:

[Simpo Two]

How does it refill?

[jmorgan]

Sucks the water up in them big hoses under the wings?

[gmk666]

Ever seen the movie, Magnolia? One of these has great cameo role at the start of the film.

From Wikipedia: Blackjack dealer Delmer Darion, while scuba diving in a lake, is killed by a firefighting airplane as it fills its tank with water. The pilot of the plane encountered Darion a few days prior, and started a fight with him after losing a hand of blackjack. The guilt and measure of coincidence drives the pilot to commit suicide.

[Vieste]

Also seen on NCIS.

[Dogwatch]

Ohhhhh. I thought they were flushing the loos!

[Z06George]

Best water bomber I've ever seen was a converted B-24. Must find a picture.
Edited to say apparently it's a Privateer not a Liberator.

Edited by Z06George on Thursday 16th February 22:53

[dougc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YMIIvn6TkY

[Eric Mc]

Although the aircraft may be termed a Bombardier 415 today, to me they will always be a Canadair 415. And I prefer the earlier piston engined version, the 215.

[perdu]

That was some Heller kit Eric

Wonderful moulding





I'd still love to see the 747 scoop that lot up m;)

[Oakey]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Meh, dropping the stuff is easy.

I want to see the testicles involved in taking a 747 over the water to scooooooooop

Surely they don't scoop?

[Simpo Two]

Without resorting to Wikipedia, I suspect it will have to fly back to a (large) airport, stop, wait to get refilled, then take off again. So it may hold a gazillion gallons but turnround time is going to be much slower than one that can scoop on the fly from a handy lake.

[jaybirduk]

I think the point of the Evergreen 747 Supertanker is it only needs one big drop to deal with the issue instead of multiple drops of traditional water bombers

http://www.evergreenaviation.com/supertanker/cpb.h...

[tank slapper]

DC-10s have been used for fire fighting as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qns8CPJAFw

[LotusOmega375D]

They have piston-engined Canadair 215s on Majorca at Puerto Pollenca. Whilst the kids were building sand-castles I spent hours on the beach watching them roll down the slipway and take off to do training flights circuits and bumps. We'd also seem them fly low over our nearby villa in Alcudia.

[Eric Mc]

Not all fire fighting aircarft scoop. Indeed, most don't.

The 747s, DC-10s, DC-6s. F7F Tigercats, Grumman Avengers, Grumman Trackers, C-130 Hercules etc that have all been used take on board their loads at the airport and then fly to the fire. They tend to cary chemical fire retardents such as borate rather than water