The U.S. Forest Service was considering bids in March/April from companies that operate heavy air tankers for service in this year's wildland fire season.

In January, the U.S. Forest Service began soliciting bids for 20 air tankers. The solicitation calls for 180-day contracts for 10 air tankers, 140-day contracts for five air tankers and 100-day contracts for five air tankers.

Last year, the Forest Service canceled contracts with its entire fleet of 33 air tankers for wildland firefighting. But facing another potentially severe fire season in some regions this year, officials offered contractors of heavy air tankers a second chance to prove their airworthiness for fighting wildland fires.

To win a contract, operators must produce a paper trail documenting the aircraft's service life and establish the number of hours each aircraft can be expected to operate safely during its lifetime, according to manufacturer calculations. Inspectors also must clear the tankers before they're eligible.

“We will have heavy air tankers in wildland firefighting this summer,” said Pat Norbury, fixed-wing program coordinator of the U.S. Forest Service. “Of course, we will also be supplementing these large air tankers with heavy helicopters, but we do not anticipate having a shortage of aircraft to meet the needs of this fire season.”

Twenty is about half of the number of air tankers used in the past, Norbury noted. “That is what the solicitation is for. If more air contracts are bid and more are accepted, then we can certainly award more,” she said.

Redmond, Ore.-based Butler Aircraft, which owns and operates five air tankers, was among the operators submitting a contract bid, according to a report by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. Butler Aircraft, which flew air tankers for the state of Oregon in 2004, said it planned to include three DC-7 tankers and a DC-4 tanker in its bid.