Fire bombers???

Yes, please! I'm really VERY interested in the Canadair 215/415...! Love them!

I actually had the chance to see, I believe it was, the 415 in action in southeastern Oklahoma in 1994 or 1995. Very impressive.

Saw a -215 at an airshow, doing it's trick with water. Quite impressive..! I have both kits from Heller (two 215 and one 415..!) but haven't had the courage to start any of them... I have been trying for years to find more pics of a CL-215 in a red and white scheme proposed to some Canadian authority (Quebec I think)... That would have made it, but my searches have been fruitless...

What about you? What are you building or considering building?

At the present time I am working on scratch building the tank for an F7F in 1/48. I am having trouble with the deminsions but I think I am getting close. I am getting ready to snail mail a friend in California who flew one for TBM, Inc. out of Tulare, CA. Those are the birds I was able to get close to. TBMs, B-17s, PB4Ys and F7Fs. TBM, Inc. was the first Fire fighting company to purchase a C-130 for fire fighting. They are operating P2 Neptune's, P3 Orion's and I believe some DC-6s. But, I'm not real sure on the latter.

Cool! Any pics???

http://fredsphotos.bravepages.com/aapics13.html the last three.
http://koti.welho.com/msolanak/details.html cockpit
http://dasoprostasia.tripod.com/Foto.htm# you will find a caption called canader, shows low pass of the canadairs...

You want some cool firebomber pictures? Check this site out, maintained by a friend of mine....
http://www.daveroofchallenge.com/

Great sites, guys!! Thanks a bunch. All of the pics that I HAD, were reduced to one big photopaper clump when the house we were living in in 1988 was under water for about a week when the Poteau River flooded near Pocola, OK. When I left for work that morning, they said the river was receeding. Did they ever lie!!! When I got home I couldn't even go home.
The E63 F7F was one of TBMs that I had pictures of.
I also seem to recall a B-17 that had been converted to turbo props.

Heres one that I found. On this site, when you click on retired oldies, there is a pic of another TBM F7F.

www.angelfire.com/indie/aerostuff/airattack.htm

Cool sites indeed! Thanks for the tips.

Great sites, guys! I just bought a couple of Hasagawa Neptunes to convert to firebombers. I'm looking for the Orion, but I won't pay 30 bucks for it, so I'll keep looking. I'm planning a series of them including the Neptune, C-130, Orion, Tigercat, etc... Probably in the Aero Union scheme. I'm looking forward to starting them soon.
Scott

As soon as I find more sites I'll post them. I am always looking for new pics. If I ever get my scanner up and running I have a couple of Air Classic articles on fire bombers. One is about the F7F from Sept. 1976. The other from Feb. 1994 covers various models, but mainly it is about the C-97 in Alaska but it does have a couple of nice color shots of an OV-10A Bronco forward controller ship. Also, Squadron's #1106 P-61 Blackwidow in Action book has a b/w/ pic of an F-15A Reporter fire bomber. Good looking a/c!!!

I think fire bombers are great, as a Canadian, the CL-215 and 415 have a special place in my heart as aircraft go. I saw a 215 operated by the Alberta Government up close several years ago. Quite the machine.

I also saw the converted A-26 Invaders of Airspray. There's some photos of the Airspray Invaders, Electras and CL215s at their web site: www.airspray.com

Leading Edge did, at one time, make 1/72 and 1/48 decal sheets for Airspray's Invaders. Perhaps they still do. They have announced some new CL-215 and 415 sheets for early 2004.

Here's a couple of shots I took a few years back of an ex RCAF Mitchell converted to fire killing duties.

I have a CD containing several pictures taken by a friend of mine of fire figting hehicopters taking on water at Wentworth Falls. If soneone could tell me how I will post them on this site. If not I can burn a copy and send it to FSM.
Dai

Here are more sites for you all to check out concerning firebombers from A-26, C-119, C-97, C-130, CH-54, P2V, and my favorite the PB4Y-2G!

http://www.hawkinsandpowers.com/
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=Hawkins%20and%20Powers&distinct_entry=true
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=Hawkins%20%26%20Powers&distinct_entry=true
http://www.firehogs.com/photos/tankers.shtml
http://p2vneptune.org/f03.shtml
http://www.ruudleeuw.com/greybull.htm
http://www.wildlandfire.com/photos.htm
http://www.oldprops.f9.co.uk/Privateer.htm

...and for you chopper geeks:

http://www.erickson-aircrane.com/
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=Erickson%20Air-Crane&distinct_entry=true
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=Erickson%20Air-Crane%20Inc&distinct_entry=true

Enjoy!

Upnorth, this is indeed good news... I might have to take my Canadairs out of the loft, after all..!

I have used Leading Edge decals and have no complaints about them, the Invader sheets were well printed and accurate, though I never used those sets myself.

I seem to recall someone making a fire killer conversion set for F7F Tigers, it included the belly tank and some decals for American registered ones. I keep thinking Cutting Edge had done them but I can't remember for sure. Can anyone jog my memory?

UPNORTH

I believe the conversion was from Lonestar Models in Texas. I would like to get my hands on a couple.

Randie

you guys live such sheltered lives LOL. forget the airshow, go to the real thing. there was a forest fire by Prince Albert (about 40 mins) so we went to the one side of the river and watched all the water-bombers do their stuff on the other side.

I just returned from taking the betterhalf to work and was perusing the web and found this site.

www.baslerturbo.com

Now I have never modified a kit or scratchbuilt anything other than a few added details to an existing kit. But, after looking this over, I just might break out the old Monogram C-47 and attempt this. I may screw it up royal. But, I gotta try!!!
If and when I get finished I will try and post the pic's. I may even do a complete build type article. (gettin' out the Pentax!)

Randie

Good Luck on that project, it wouldn't surprize me a bit if there was a set of resin turboprobs out there in the aftermarket world to make the conversion happen.

When I saw the pictures of the Electra on the Airspray site, it almost made me want to go out and buy Academy's recent 1/144 kit and try that conversion out.

I saw a C-119 refitted for fire killing duties a number of years ago, it had a jet engine stuck on top of it for added thrust. Where's Italeri's old Flying Boxcar kit when you need it!?

Like this one...

Yeah! Just like that one!

Take Italeri's C-119 and Leading Edge's Canadian decals and resin nose set for it and find some good shots of the jet pod and we might have something here

The jet pod is from a P2V Neptune. This C-119G belongs to Hawkins & Powers Aviation based in Greybull, Wyoming. My grandfather works for them, I grew up around all those awesome aircraft! If I remember, the AC-119 that Testor/Italeri produced has the same nose.

I have some pretty nice walkaround digital photos of a canadair amphib fire tanker, that landed at our airport and some walkaround pics of a OV Bronco. I have worked on the Broncos at the airport, as well as a Bell, and a DC-6. I also worked on a P-2 in Nevada, converting it into a firebomber for Minden Air in Carson City..their website is: www.mindenair.com they have some great pics of their P-2's. Unfortunately they lost one about 2 months while fighting a fire. If anyone is interested in pics of the Canadair, Bronco or DC-6 let me know, and I will gladly e-mail them. Unfortunately, the extensive pics I took of the P-2 were before I bought a digital camera, and at this point I do not have a scanner. kik36@cox.net

The turboprop B17 was converted by an outfit working out of Montana. Saw it once in Kallispel Mt on tanker base. They took 4 RR Darts off of a British airliner and stuck them on. Understand they had all kinds of control proplems (props turn the wrong direction).

It was lost not long after that on a fire in the same general area. The way it was explained to me (two of our aircraft were operating the same fire and witnessed it). The B-17 was flying a ridge line, at about 100 ft agl, in extremly gusty winds. Apparently a gust of wind got under the left wing, causing the the aircraft to roll to the right. The pilots couldn't control it and the aircraft did a barrel roll and slammed into the ridge about a 1/2 mile from where the roll started.

I just recently read an article in Aviation Week about fire bombers. Actually they did a three part series on them, but the Nov. 17, 2003 issue has an article showing a new concept aircraft and a great looking AH-1 Cobra fire recce platform that is based in Sacramento. The article also tells of various new firebomber concepts that include:

Putting a five blade rotor on top of a C-130, thus making it a "Rotodyne".
Creating a C-17 based firebomber.
An A-10 FireHog.
And, get this.... A Boeing 747-400, that could drop 24,000 gallons of water at a height of 400 - 800 feet!!!
Now that's something that I would pay to see in action!

I think the C-130, C-17, and especially the 747 concepts would make great looking models in that fire red and white scheme that is the trend now.

Check out the mag issue from your library. Aviation Week and Space Technology, Nov. 17, 2003

Merry Christmas to all,

Stinger

Hey Stinger!!

In responce to your email. Yes I would be interested in seeing the article.
If you will email me at coulterrc2002@yahoo.com, I will give you my snailmail.
Apparently, my sbcglobal address isn't working right. Need to get in touch with those folks.

Thanks,
Randie

In 1988 - 1991 I worked as a ATC dispatcher on the firelines in Montana. I was the one who communicated between the spotter plane, fire boss, and fire desk. I was in Kalispell when Speilberg came for a vacation and do some research on Mountain Men. He got so caught up with the WWII feeling aroung the fireport, that the movie Always resulted from it. We had three planes for the West Glacier and Augusta fire that year. The C210 was the spotter, then we had the Privateer and two A26's. A P2 also came in one day with an engine that blew a rod. I thought I would never see the day where I'd wake up to a 1/2 dozen R2800s being ran up for MAG checks.
We also had a ANG Chinook and 6 Hueys that were always in the air providing supply runs to the fire lines. I got to be hauled around in the Huey to set up repeaters on the mountain tops so that we could talk to the firelines that were in the snow chutes.

I'm hoping to get some time to scan in all the pictures I accumlated during those years to share.

For a good book about the pioneers of firebombing, get a copy called "Bring the Biggest Piece Back". It is about the Johnson Flying Service that was based out of Missoula MT. and has all the planes, from Tri-motors, TBMs and A-26s to C46s and C54s. It goes into detail about the first man use airplanes in firefighting to drop smokjumpers and to use as water bombers.

Scott