What I play with now and then

benhasajeep

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I work for a Charter airline that fly's DC-10's and 757's. We retired all our short ranged DC-10's a couple years ago. This plane was spared the scrapper for a little modification. The owner of our company teamed up with an engineering firm and modified it to a water bomber. It flew at the Paris Airshow this past year. These pics are from a Test flight we did for the FAA, US Forest Service, and Air Tanker Board. After this test the aircraft and the new company started to run it was certified by the FAA.

It holds 12,000 gallons of water. Can drop all at once, several drops, or anything in between.

Pictures were taken 150' to the side of the runway, aircraft at 145 knots and 150'.

DoorsopeningAdjweb.jpg


MiddledropAdjweb.jpg


DropAdjweb.jpg




Endofdropweb.jpg


Tankerfrontrightweb.jpg
 
imagine standing underneath that! do you think it would flatten you?

BTW very interesting set of shots
 
JohnMF said:
imagine standing underneath that! do you think it would flatten you?

BTW very interesting set of shots

They actually did tests of what it would do. The set up an instant up awning, some camp chairs, and some buckets. Did 3 drops in a row. They proved that they can meter the water as they want and hit the target 3 out of 3 times. The planes wake turbulence would blow the chairs over before the water would hit them. They actually had guys to the side video taping. It was basically like a heavy rain shower.

Unlike what people think it actually handles better than the old piston planes. And because of the jet engines has way more power in reserve.

Taking the pictures was actually a dissapoint for me. As I ran right into one of the faults of P&S digitals. Lag time between pics. It was just unbearable for me. I loved the camera up till then. I still think its good. But just a little frustrated with the shutter lag and time between shots. Pics are straight from the camera .jpg. Only reduced them for size. Was a very overcast day.
 

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