Federal agencies have beefed up the number of large air tankers and heavy helicopters available for fighting the 2005 wildfire season in the United States, according to Rose Davis of the Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management Public Affairs office.

As of late July, fire managers had at their disposal 16 heavy helicopters on exclusive use and 12 heavy air tankers. In addition, four “scooper” CL215s, four military C130s with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, more than 70 single-engine air tankers, at least 500 Type 2 or Type 3 helicopters, and 113 Type 1 helicopters were working fires, Davis said.

With a fire season that was slower than predicted in getting rolling, aerial resources were sufficient to meet the demand, she said.

A crash of a P3 Orion days after returning those tankers back to service in April renewed concerns that they might be taken out of service again, but the P3s are still on the line. The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet concluded its investigation.

The P2Vs were returned to service after the Forest Service received the results of an engineering study earlier this summer. “They took that engineering study and completed the most important inspections that the engineering study wanted done before we returned them to service,” Davis said.

“The engineering study also gave [contractors] a list of items to look at more frequently.” That list of items contractors must maintain includes “everything,” said Davis, “nuts and bolts, cracks, changing the oil, changing the engines, propellers. Contractors are responsible for the maintenance of that aircraft.”

The Forest Service is also continuing to evaluate platforms for the next generation of air tankers, including Evergreen International's Boeing 747; the BAE146 of Minden Air of Minden, Nev.; a British Airways plane; and the Canada Air-7 of Neptune Aviation of Missoula, Mont. “They're looking at possibly tanking and running that as a newer platform,” said Davis.

The Russian Ilyushin 76 Waterbomber has also been offered to the United States to fly wildand fire missions, but Davis says the unit has not received a Federal Aviation Administration's certificate to fly in wildfire missions.

“We hear a lot about the IL76 and how we're not appreciating their qualities, but the fact is they're not legal to fly firefighting missions, and if they were, we'd still have to go through the process about what can this aircraft do and where do you use it appropriately,” said Davis.

If the IL76 is “not legal” to fly in U.S. firefighting operations, it's only because of Forest Service requirements, not FAA regulations. According to spokesperson Les Door, the FAA does not have jurisdiction over aircraft used in public-use operations, like fighting fires.

Door said most, if not all, air tankers the Forest Service contracts with have FAA-type certificates in the “restricted use” category. The CL215, a Canadian aircraft, received its FAA certificate in 1998.

In July, four MAFFS units were activated for service to combat wildfires and were operating out of Boise. MAFFS are military C130s that can be converted to large air tankers carrying 3,000 gallons of retardant for wildland firefighting using a slip-in modular tanking system owned by the U.S. Forest Service.

The Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve operate eight MAFFS units, each with specially trained crews. Two units activated in Boise were called from the Wyoming Air National Guard out of Cheyenne and two were from the North Carolina Air National Guard based in Charlotte.

Congress established the MAFFS program in the 1970s, and the MAFFS units operated now are 25 to 30 years old. Davis said a new generation of MAFFS was on the drawing board. “The research and development is nothing that goes very quickly, but we hope to have a working unit of the new design next year.”

Nevertheless, the MAFFS presence in Boise was cause for excitement. “It's just like the civilian air tankers — people get excited when they see these big tankers on the horizon, coming in and working on these fires,” Davis said.