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62-483: Designed initially for service on Midway -class aircraft carriers , early production F7Fs were land-based variants. The type was too large to operate from older and smaller carriers, and only a late variant (F7F-4N) was certified for carrier service. Based on the earlier Grumman XP-50 that was eventually canceled, the company developed the XP-65 ( Model 51 ) further for a future "convoy fighter" concept. In 1943, work on

124-604: A Bambi bucket. Airtankers or water bombers are fixed-wing aircraft fitted with tanks that can be filled on the ground at an air tanker base or, in the case of flying boats and amphibious aircraft , by skimming water from lakes, reservoirs, or large rivers without needing to land. Various aircraft have been used over the years for firefighting. In 1947, the United States Air Force and United States Forest Service experimented with military aircraft dropping water-filled bombs. The bombs were unsuccessful, and

186-579: A carrier the size of the Essex class . The resulting calculations showed that the effect would be a reduction of air group size—the resulting ship would have an air group of 64, compared to 90–100 for the standard Essex -class fleet carriers. As it progressed, the design also became heavily influenced by the wartime experience of the Royal Navy 's armored carriers: As a result of study of damage sustained by various British carriers prior to our entry into

248-661: A combined fleet of 23 aircraft. Borate salts used in the past to fight wildfires have been found to sterilize the soil and be toxic to animals so are now prohibited. Newer retardants use ammonium sulfate or ammonium polyphosphate with attapulgite clay thickener or diammonium phosphate with a guar gum derivative thickener. Fire retardants often contain wetting agents , preservatives and rust inhibitors and are colored red with ferric oxide or fugitive color to mark where they have been dropped. Brand names of fire retardants for aerial application include Fortress and Phos-Chek . Some water-dropping aircraft carry tanks of

310-418: A guar gum derivative to thicken the water and reduce runoff. Helicopters can hover over the fire and drop water or retardant. The S-64 Helitanker has microprocessor -controlled doors on its tank. The doors are controlled based on the area to be covered and wind conditions. Fixed-wing aircraft must make a pass and drop water or retardant like a bomber. Spotter (Air Tactical Group Supervisor) aircraft often orbit

372-540: A hangar deck consisting of two courses of 40-pound STS between frames 36 and 192. Although none of the CVB Class carriers were completed in time to take part in war operations, the effectiveness of armored flight decks against Kamikaze attacks was demonstrated by various carriers attached to the British Pacific Fleet ... The concept went to finding a larger carrier that could support both deck armor and

434-608: A hanging snorkel. Popular firefighting helicopters include variants of the Bell UH-1H Super Huey, Bell 204 , Bell 205 , Bell 212 , Boeing Vertol 107 , Boeing Vertol 234 , Sikorsky S-70 "Firehawk" and the Sikorsky S-64 Aircrane helitanker, which features a snorkel for filling from a natural or man-made water source while in hover. Currently the world's largest helicopter, the Mil Mi-26 , uses

496-587: A manner that hampered landing operations. The follow-up Forrestal -class featured a deeper hull that had more freeboard and better seakeeping. In contrast with the earlier Lexington , Yorktown and Essex -classes, the beam (width) of the Midway -class carriers meant that they could not pass through the Panama Canal . Although they were intended to augment the US Pacific fleet during World War II,

558-406: A maximum payload of about 12,000 litres (3,200 US gal) of water, making "scoops" in suitable stretches of water in 14 seconds. Bombardier's Dash 8 Q Series aircraft are the basis of new, next-generation air tankers. Cascade Aerospace has converted two pre-owned Q400s to act as part-time water bomber and part-time transport aircraft for France's Sécurité Civile , while Neptune Aviation

620-509: A naval version of the de Havilland Hornet . Beginning in 1949, F7Fs were flown to the then-U.S. Navy storage facility at Naval Air Station Litchfield Park , Arizona. Although the vast majority of the airframes were eventually scrapped, a number of examples were purchased as surplus. The surviving Tigercats were primarily used as water bombers to fight wildfires in the 1960s and 1970s and Sis-Q Flying Services of Santa Rosa, California , operated an F7F-3N tanker in this role until retirement in

682-576: A number of Convair 580 and Fokker F27 Friendship turboprop airliners to air tankers. The largest aerial firefighter ever used is a Boeing 747 aerial firefighter, known as the Global Supertanker , that can carry 19,600 US gallons (74,200 L) fed by a pressurized drop system. The Supertanker was deployed operationally for the first time in 2009, fighting a fire in Spain. The tanker made its first American operation on August 31, 2009, at

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744-614: A second seat for a radar operator was added and these aircraft were designated F7F-2N . A second production version, the F7F-3 , was modified to correct the issues that caused the aircraft to fail carrier acceptance, and this version was again trialled on the USS ; Shangri-La . A wing failure on a heavy landing caused the failure of this carrier qualification as well. F7F-3 aircraft were produced in day fighter, night fighter, and photo-reconnaissance versions. The final production version,

806-460: A sufficiently large air group. The weight-savings needed to armor the flight deck were achieved by removing the planned cruiser-caliber battery of 8-inch (203 mm) guns and reducing the 5-inch antiaircraft battery from dual to single mounts. Unlike the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers, for which the armored deck was part of the ship structure, the Midway class retained their "strength deck" at

868-423: Is converting a pre-owned Q300 as a prototype to augment its Lockheed P-2 Neptune aircraft. The Sécurité Civile also operates twelve Canadair CL-415 and nine Conair Turbo Firecat aircraft. Neptune Aviation also currently operates converted British Aerospace 146 jetliners as air tankers. The BAe 146 can carry up to 3,000 gallons of fire fighting retardant. Air Spray USA Ltd. of Chico, California has also converted

930-531: Is the use of aircraft and other aerial resources to combat wildfires . The types of aircraft used include fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters . Smokejumpers and rappellers are also classified as aerial firefighters, delivered to the fire by parachute from a variety of fixed-wing aircraft , or rappelling from helicopters . Chemicals used to fight fires may include water, water enhancers such as foams and gels , and specially formulated fire retardants such as Phos-Chek . The idea of fighting forest fires from

992-405: Is used in official documentation. The term " waterbomber " is used in some Canadian government documents for the same class of vehicles, though it sometimes has a connotation of amphibians . Air attack is an industry term used for the actual application of aerial resources, both fixed-wing and rotorcraft, on a fire. Within the industry, though, "air attack" may also refer to the supervisor in

1054-666: The Cessna 337 . The Beechcraft Baron was long used as a leadplane or air attack ship, but most were retired in 2003; more common now is the Beechcraft King Air and the Twin Commander 690 . A Cessna Citation 500 jet owned by Air Spray (1967) LTd. was used by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests beginning in 1995 and used for two fire seasons to lead the very fast Electra L188 air tanker to

1116-748: The F7F-4N , was extensively rebuilt for additional strength and stability, and did pass carrier qualification, but only 12 were built. The F7F Tigercat was produced too late to serve in its intended role in WWII; however, early F7F-1 models saw service in the Pacific Theatre before the end of the war. One Marine Corps photographic reconnaissance squadron equipped with the F7F, VMP-354 , arrived in Guam in June 1945, and

1178-798: The Oak Glen Fire . It has since been replaced by a Boeing 747-400 . Another wide body jetliner that is currently being used as an air tanker is the modified McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 operated by the 10 Tanker Air Carrier company as the DC-10 Air Tanker . It can carry up to 12,000 US gallons (45,400 L) of fire fighting retardant. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations operates convertible-to-cargo Ilyushin Il-76 airtankers that have been operating with 11,000-US-gallon (41,600 L) tanking systems, and several Beriev Be-200 jet powered amphibian aircraft . The Be-200 can carry

1240-522: The 1950s, Midway and Franklin D. Roosevelt underwent the SCB-110 modernization program (similar to SCB-125 for the Essex class), which added angled flight decks , steam catapults , mirror landing systems, and other modifications that allowed them to operate a new breed of large, heavy naval jets. Coral Sea had a variant modernization program called SCB-110A with an angled deck 3 degrees greater than

1302-933: The B747 Supertanker. Other former military aircraft utilized as firefighting air tankers in the U.S. in the past included the B-17 and the PB4Y-2 , a version of the B-24 . The Lead Plane function directs the activities of the airtankers by both verbal target descriptions and by physically leading the airtankers on the drop run. The leadplane is typically referred to as a "Bird Dog" in Canada or "Supervision" aircraft in Australia. The O-2 Skymaster , Cessna 310 and OV-10 Bronco have been used as spotter and lead plane platforms. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has also used

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1364-623: The BAe 146 jetliner to the role of air tanker. Another modern-era passenger aircraft that has now been converted for aerial firefighting missions in the U.S. is the McDonnell Douglas MD-87 jetliner operated by Erickson Aero Tanker. The MD-87 can carry up to 4,000 gallons of fire fighting retardant. Coulson Aviation unveiled a Boeing 737-300 firefighting conversion in May 2017. Six aircraft have been purchased from Southwest Airlines for

1426-475: The Erickson AirCrane, are also outfitted with a front-mounted foam cannon. Buckets are usually filled by submerging or dipping them in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, or portable tanks. The most popular of the buckets is the flexible Bambi Bucket . Tanks can be filled on the ground (by water tenders or truck-mounted systems) or water can be siphoned from lakes, rivers, reservoirs, or a portable tank through

1488-564: The Grumman Tomcat, this name was abandoned, because it was considered at the time to have excessively sexual overtones; (from the 1970s, the name Tomcat became commonly associated with, and officially used by the Navy for, another Grumman design, the F-14 twin-jet carrier-based interceptor). The first production variant was the single-seat F7F-1N aircraft; after the 34th production aircraft,

1550-605: The RADS system conversion which was planned to enter service in December 2017. The 737 aircraft is smaller than the C-130Q which allows for a wider range of airfields to be utilized. Britt Coulson further stated the aircraft will be able to retain the current seat and galley configuration for tanker operations. On 22 November 2018, the 737 was used for the first time to fight a fire near Newcastle, Australia. In July 2022, Airbus tested

1612-1021: The S-2T) as used by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), as well as the Conair Firecat version developed and used by Conair Group Inc. of Canada, while the Douglas DC-4 , the Douglas DC-7 , the Lockheed C-130 Hercules , the Lockheed P-2 Neptune , and the Lockheed P-3 Orion – and its commercial equivalent, the L-188 Electra – have been used as air tankers. Conair also converted

1674-675: The U.S. against Iraq during Operation Desert Storm . A few months after the campaign, the last of the class left Navy service. Coral Sea was slowly scrapped at Baltimore as legal and environmental troubles continually delayed her fate. Midway spent five years in the mothball fleet at Bremerton, Washington before being taken over by a museum group. The ship is now open to the public at the USS Midway Museum in San Diego, California . Hull codes ; Aerial firefighting Aerial firefighting , also known as waterbombing ,

1736-821: The US Navy generally follows today. None of the class went on war cruises during the Korean War . As the three ships became essential to the Navy's strategic nuclear weapons role in Europe, they were mainly deployed to the Atlantic and Mediterranean . Until the availability of the Forrestal class, they were the premier commands sought by senior naval aviators. They were "admiral makers" for many of their commanding officers including future Chief of Naval Operations George Whelan Anderson Jr. and David L. McDonald . During

1798-614: The United States, most of these aircraft are privately owned and contracted to government agencies, and the National Guard and the U.S. Marines also maintain fleets of firefighting aircraft. On May 10, 2004, The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that they were cancelling contracts with operators of 33 heavy airtankers. They cited liability concerns and an inability to safely manage

1860-459: The XP-65 was terminated in favor of the design that would eventually become the F7F. The contract for the prototype XF7F-1 was signed on 30 June 1941. Grumman's aim was to produce a fighter that outperformed and outgunned all existing fighter aircraft, and that had an auxiliary ground attack capability. Performance of the prototype and initial production aircraft met expectations; the F7F was one of

1922-617: The aerial firefighting capacity of the A400M using a roll-on/roll-off kit comprising a 20-tonne water tank and piping allowing the load to be expelled from the end of the cargo ramp. All links, citations and data sources are listed in the paragraph above. For accident and grounding citations, see paragraph below table. Category legend: Light: under 1,000 US gallons (3,800 L), Medium: under 10,000 US gallons (38,000 L), Heavy: under 20,000 US gallons (76,000 L), Super heavy: over 20,000 US gallons (76,000 L) – currently only used for

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1984-708: The aerial firefighting fleet, newer purpose-built tankers have since come online. The smallest are the Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs). These are agricultural sprayers that generally drop about 800 US gallons (3,000 L) of water or retardant. Examples include the Air Tractor AT-802 , which can deliver around 800 gallons of water or fire retardant solution in each drop, and the Soviet Antonov An-2 biplane. Both of these aircraft can be fitted with floats that scoop water from

2046-437: The air (usually in a fixed-wing aircraft) who supervises the process of attacking the wildfire from the air, including fixed-wing airtankers, helicopters, and any other aviation resources assigned to the fire. The Air Tactical Group Supervisor (ATGS), often called "air attack", is usually flying at an altitude above other resources assigned to the fire, often in a fixed-wing plane but occasionally (depending on assigned resources or

2108-484: The air dates back at least as far as Friedrich Karl von Koenig-Warthausen 's observations on seeing a blaze when overflying the Santa Lucia Range , California, in 1929. A wide variety of terminology has been used in the popular media for the aircraft (and methods) used in aerial firefighting. The terms airtanker or air tanker generally refer to fixed-wing aircraft based in the United States; "airtanker"

2170-472: The availability of qualified personnel) in a helicopter. Depending on the size, location, and assessed potential of the wildfire, the "air attack" or ATGS person may be charged with initial attack (the first response of firefighting assets on fire suppression), or with extended attack, the ongoing response to and management of a major wildfire requiring additional resources including engines, ground crews, and other aviation personnel and aircraft needed to control

2232-429: The bulges also resulted in a dangerously fast rolling period that prevented Midway from operating aircraft in heavy seas. The bulging was therefore not repeated on Coral Sea . The Reagan era reprieve could not last. In 1990, Coral Sea , which had long since earned the nickname "Ageless Warrior", was decommissioned. Midway had one last war in which to participate, and was one of the six aircraft carriers deployed by

2294-452: The coordination of so many planes was beyond the effective command and control ability of one ship. However, their size did allow these ships to more easily accommodate the rapid growth in aircraft size and weight that took place in the early jet age. The forward flight deck was designed for launching 13-ton aircraft; and the aft flight deck was designed for landing 11-ton aircraft, assuming in-flight expenditure of fuel and ordnance. While

2356-586: The fastest piston-engine fighters, with a top speed significantly greater than single-engine USN aircraft — 71 mph faster than a Grumman F6F Hellcat at sea level. Captain Fred Trapnell , one of the premier USN test pilots of the era, stated: "It's the best damn fighter I've ever flown." The F7F was to be heavily-armed — four 20 mm cannon and four 50 caliber ( 0.50 in ; 12.7 mm) machine guns, as well as underwing and under-fuselage hardpoints for bombs and torpedoes. This speed and firepower

2418-500: The fire and establish control lines or firelines ahead of the wildfire. A wide variety of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft are used for aerial firefighting. In 2003, it was reported that "The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management own, lease, or contract for nearly 1,000 aircraft each fire season, with annual expenditures in excess of US$ 250 million in recent years". Helicopters may be fitted with tanks (helitankers) or they may carry buckets. Some helitankers, such as

2480-434: The fire at a higher altitude to coordinate the efforts of the smoke jumper, helicopter, media, and retardant-dropping aircraft, while lead planes fly low-level ahead of the airtankers to mark the trajectory for the drop, and ensure overall safety for both ground-based and aerial firefighters. Water is not usually dropped directly on flames because its effect is short-lived. Fire retardants are not typically used to extinguish

2542-595: The fire, but instead are used to contain the fire, or slow it down to allow ground crews to contain it. Because of this, retardants are usually dropped in front of or around a moving fire, rather than directly on it, creating a firebreak . Aerial firefighting is most effectively used in conjunction with ground-based efforts, as aircraft are only one weapon in the firefighting arsenal. However, there have been cases of aircraft extinguishing fires long before ground crews were able to reach them. Some firefighting aircraft can refill their tanks in mid-flight, by flying down to skim

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2604-700: The fires. This was the first time a jet aircraft was used as a lead plane or "bird dog". The Department of Parks and Wildlife in Western Australia operates a fleet of nine American Champion Scouts 8GCBC during the summer months as spotter aircraft and Air Attack platforms. The Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and the Yukon Territories contract to supply Twin Commander 690 as bird dog aircraft for their air tanker fleets. Air Spray owns 9 Twin Commander 690 for use as bird dog aircraft. In

2666-516: The fleet after the wing failure and resulting crash of a C-130 A Hercules in California and a PB4Y-2 in Colorado during the summer of 2002. Both aged aircraft broke up in flight due to catastrophic fatigue cracks at the wing roots. After subsequent third-party examination and extensive testing of all USFS contracted heavy airtankers, three companies were awarded contracts and now maintain

2728-401: The hangar deck level and the armored flight deck was part of the superstructure . They would be the last USN carriers to be so designed; the immense size of the succeeding Forrestal -class supercarriers would require a new deep-hulled design carrying the strength deck at the flight deck level to produce a stronger and lighter hull. The heavily subdivided arrangement of the machinery spaces

2790-433: The hangar space. On the CVB Class the hangar was therefore divided into five compartments separated by 40 and 50-pound Special Treatment Steel (STS) division bulkheads extending from the hangar deck to the flight deck, each fitted with a large door suitable for handling aircraft. It is hoped that this sectionalization, in conjunction with sprinkler and fog foam systems, will effectively prevent fires from spreading throughout

2852-484: The hangar spaces, as occurred on USS  Franklin on 30 October and 19 March. The damage experiences of several British carriers, which unlike our own were fitted with armored flight decks, demonstrated the effectiveness of such armor in shielding hangar spaces from GP bombs and vital spaces below the hangar deck from semi- armor-piercing (SAP) bombs. Accordingly, the CVB Class was designed with an armored flight deck consisting of 3-1/2-inch STS from frames 46 to 175 with

2914-423: The late 1980s. Data from Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II General characteristics Performance Armament Avionics Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Midway-class aircraft carrier The Midway class was a class of three United States Navy aircraft carriers . The lead ship , USS  Midway ,

2976-432: The lead ship of the class, Midway , was not commissioned until 10 September 1945, eight days after the surrender of Japan . While Midway and Coral Sea followed the US Navy's policy of naming aircraft carriers after battles (two Casablanca -class escort carriers gave up their names for the larger ships), USS Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated the policy of naming aircraft carriers after former US Presidents that

3038-519: The new Grumman F-14 Tomcat fleet defense fighter or the S-3 Viking anti-submarine jet. In 1977, Franklin D. Roosevelt was decommissioned. On her final deployment, Roosevelt embarked AV-8 Harrier jump jets to test the concept of including VSTOL aircraft in a carrier air wing. Coral Sea was rescued from imminent decommissioning by the election of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States in 1980. Reagan's proposed 600-ship Navy gave

3100-630: The other two. All three of the Midway class made combat deployments in the Vietnam War . Coral Sea deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin six times, Midway deployed on three occasions, and Franklin D. Roosevelt made one combat deployment before returning to the Mediterranean. In the late 1960s, Midway underwent an extensive modernization and reconstruction program under SCB 101.66, which proved to be controversial and expensive and thus

3162-508: The remaining ships a new lease on life. Coral Sea underwent extensive refits to address the ship's poor condition. When the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet became operational in the mid-1980s, the Navy quickly deployed them to the Midway and Coral Sea to replace the older F-4s. A 1986 refit for Midway removed her 6" armor belt and bulged her hull to try to increase freeboard. While successful in this regard,

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3224-466: The resulting ships featured excellent protection and unprecedented airwing size, they also had several undesirable characteristics. Internally, the ships were very cramped and crowded. Freeboard was unusually low for such large carriers; in heavy seas, they shipped large amounts of water (only partially mitigated by the fitting of a hurricane bow during the SCB-110/110A upgrades) and corkscrewed in

3286-688: The surface of a body of water. Similar in configuration to the World War II–era Consolidated PBY Catalina , the Canadair CL-215 and its derivative the CL-415 are designed and built specifically for firefighting. The Croatian Air Force uses six CL-415s as well as six AT 802s for firefighting purposes. Medium-sized modified aircraft include the Grumman S-2 Tracker ( retrofitted with turboprop engines as

3348-487: The use of internal water tanks was adopted instead. The Mendocino Air Tanker Squad formed by Joseph Bolles Ely in 1956 was the first such unit in the United States to drop water and retardant on fires. Based at the Willows-Glenn County Airport it soon led the way for other agencies to form similar squads. Though World War II- and Korean War-era bombers were for a long time the mainstay of

3410-470: The war, two important departures from traditional U.S. Navy carrier design were incorporated in the CVB Class, then still under development. HMS  Illustrious in an action off Malta on 1 January 1941 was hit by several bombs, three of which detonated in the hangar space. Large fires swept fore and aft among parked planes thereby demonstrating the desirability of attempting to confine the limits of such explosions and fires by structural sectionalization of

3472-407: The weight by about 10 percent of what would have been required for riveted structural assembly. The resulting Midway -class carriers were very large, with the ability to accommodate more planes than any other carrier in the U.S. fleet (30–40 more aircraft than the Essex class). In their original configuration, the Midway -class ships had an airwing of up to 130 aircraft. It was soon realized that

3534-579: Was commissioned in September 1945 and decommissioned in 1992. USS  Franklin D. Roosevelt was commissioned in October 1945, and taken out of service in 1977. USS  Coral Sea was commissioned in April 1947, and decommissioned in 1990. The CVB-41 -class vessels (then unnamed) were originally conceived in 1940 as a design study to determine the effect of including an armored flight deck on

3596-502: Was based on that of the Montana -class battleship , while the two inner propeller shafts were partially enclosed in skegs, similar to contemporary battleship construction. While the Essex -class carriers had eight main engineering compartments, the Midway -class had 26, including twelve boiler rooms well off the centerline and four widely separated engine rooms. More extensive use of electric arc-welding than in previous warships reduced

3658-457: Was bought at the cost of heavy weight and a high landing speed, but what caused the aircraft to fail carrier suitability trials was poor directional stability with only one engine operational, as well as problems with the tailhook design. The initial production series was, therefore, used only from land bases by the USMC, as night fighters with APS-6 radar. While the F7F was initially also known as

3720-509: Was not repeated on the other ships. While $ 82 million had been budgeted for the modernization, the actual cost was $ 202 million, in comparison to $ 277 million for simultaneous construction of the brand-new USS  John F. Kennedy . By the 1970s, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Coral Sea were showing their age. All three retained the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in their air wings, being too small to operate

3782-658: Was quickly transferred to Yontan Airfield in Okinawa in July 1945. In July and August 1945, VMP-354 used the F7F to photograph potential invasion beaches for Operation Downfall in Southern Kyushu. Marine Corps night fighter squadron VMF(N)-513 flying F7F-3N Tigercats saw action in the early stages of the Korean War, flying night interdiction and fighter missions and shooting down two Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes. This

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3844-404: Was the only combat use of the aircraft. Most F7F-2Ns were modified to control drones for combat training, and these gained bubble canopies over the rear cockpit for the drone controller. An F7F-2D used for pilot transitioning also had a rear sliding, bubble canopy. In 1945, two Tigercats, serial numbers TT346 and TT349 , were evaluated, but rejected by the British Royal Navy in favour of

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