P-3 air tankers at Sacramento's McClellan airfield. Google Earth photo, October 30, 2011
The Aero Union Corporation has listed their eight P-3 air tankers to be sold by auction. Plant and Machinery auction company is advertising the aircraft and other items totaling “$50,000,000 of aircraft, parts, and intellectual property” to be sold in a sealed bid auction. The auction site lists the following items for sale:
Intellectual property, including the MAFFS II 3,000-gallon slide-in air tanker system for C-130J aircraft, and the FIREHAWK Aerial Firefighting System for Blackhawk helicopters
File photo of an Aero Union P-3 at McClellan. Photo by Aero Union.
Aero Union began in Redding, California in 1960 as Western Air Industries, changed the name to Aero Union, and moved to Chico in 1964. They began acquiring military surplus P-3 Orion aircraft in 1990, beginning with two and later increasing the total to eight. In 2005 a group of investors in the Seattle area bought the company and moved it to the former McClellan Air Force Base at Sacramento in 2010. The base is now a joint civil-military airfield with various mixed-use tenants.
The U.S. Forest Service cancelled their air tanker contract with Aero Union in July of 2011, saying safety inspections were not being completed, and shortly after that the company laid off most of their employees. At the time of the cancellation six of the P-3s were still under contract and being used regularly on wildfires. Unless the condition of the aircraft has deteriorated significantly in the last six months, which is possible, they may still be very viable as air tankers. It appears that they will qualify for the U.S. Forest Service’s “new generation” air tanker contract which requires aircraft that can cruise at 300 knots, have turbine engines, and have a “target” capacity of 3,000 to 5,000 gallons.
The sealed bids will be opened February 28, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. local time at the Lions Gate Hotel at McClellan, California.
A P-3 Orion drops on the Station fire Aug. 30, 2009 near Acton, California. Photo: Dan Steinberg
ChicoER.com is reporting that one of the three primary suppliers of air tankers has closed their doors, telling their employees they no longer have jobs, and to pick up their last checks this week. Aero Union, which earlier this year had eight large P-3 air tankers on exclusive use contracts with the U.S. Forest Service for wildland fire suppression, had their contracts for the last six P-3’s cancelled at the end of July due to their failure to participate in a continued airworthiness program.
The demise of Aero Union left 11 large air tankers, P2V’s supplied by Neptune and Minden, on exclusive use contracts with the USFS, compared to 44 in 2002. After the agency cancelled the Aero Union contract a few weeks ago, saying “we possess the aircraft support needed for this year’s fire season”, they brought on three Convair 580 air tankers to attempt to fill the void, bringing the total up to 14.
Eight of the nineteen heavy air tankers in the United States have been grounded indefinitely from the national fleet. A memo sent by the Southwest Coordination Center on April 14 stated that all P-3 Orions are grounded due to “issues found during aircraft inspection on one of the P-3s last week”.
This leaves 11 heavy air tankers, nine P2Vs operated by Neptune Aviation out of Missoula, MT and two P2Vs operated by Minden Air, Inc. out of Minden, NV.
One might assume, then, that the MAFFS and the very large air tankers, the 2 DC-10s and the 747, might see more use this year, if we have at least an average fire season.
We expect to have more on this story as the details emerge.
Thanks Ken
UPDATE 11:00 p.m. PT, April 15, 2011
A story in the Lubbock Avalance-Journal says all of the P-3s belonged to Aero Union who voluntarily grounded the planes due to a disagreement or misunderstanding between their company and the U. S. Forest Service and the FAA over inspections of the aircraft. The article said the company hopes to resolve the issue at a meeting on Tuesday of next week.
Numerous reports, blogs, and press releases continue to perpetuate the rumor that the current fleet of large airtankers used to fight wildland fires are going to be unavailable after 2012. These rumors are extremely misleading and totally false, and AHSAFA would like to set the record straight.
The privately operated large airtankers continue to be a viable component of wildland firefighting. Since 2005, the US Forest Service (USFS) has required all large airtanker operators to institute a comprehensive Continuous Airworthiness Program (CAP) in addition to the normal, routine maintenance requirements. Under the program, the operator must spell out an extensive inspection, and parts replacement plan, which must be verifiable with appropriate data and documentation. Additionally, all inspections under the CAP must be completed on schedule. This is why, contrary to current rumor, no law or regulation has mandated a phase out of the large tankers starting in 2012–or any other date– and why the industry believes the fleet is expected to remain airworthy for at least another 10-12 years of service.
Aero Union Corporation of Sacramento, California, and Neptune Aviation of Missoula, Montana are the major operators of the large airtankers under contract to the USFS. To assure the continued airworthiness of the Lockheed P-2V and P-3 airtankers, an extensive fatigue and damage tolerance assessment was carried out on the aircraft between April 2004 and August 2007 by an FAA-qualified, independent consulting firm, under a USFS contract.
For Aero Union’s eight P-3 aircraft, the average airframe hours are 17,040, with one as low as 13,900. In comparison, the current U.S. Navy P-3 aircraft averages over 20,000 hours.
The nine Neptune P-2 airtankers have a fleet average of just 9,500 flight hours on their airframes, with some aircraft, as little as 3,000 hours. New FAA requirements for continued airworthiness have even extended the service life of the aircraft.
The chart below shows the numbers of aircraft by type and the life expectancy of the majority of the existing large airtanker fleet. The chart is based on airtanker data from Aero Union and Neptune Aviation. Note the first major reduction of available aircraft doesn’t occur until 2019.
In spite of the rigorous maintenance oversight to insure the continued airworthiness of the airtankers, the industry agrees these aircraft will eventually reach the end of their service life and no longer be economical to operate. The current efforts by the USFS and the private sector are producing positive and specific solutions to the large airtanker challenge without any intervention and expansion of the role of any Federal agencies. The USFS and this association are actively addressing immediate and future large airtanker needs and together there has been significant progress in federal contracting strategies that provide the private sector with financial strategies that will position the private sector to be responsive to the need for modernized aerial firefighting assets. One of the important changes in contracting strategies requires Congress to provide the USFS with authority to contract for longer periods of time than the existing five year options. Ten year contracts would allow the private sector numerous financial options when procuring new large airtanker aircraft.
The public should rest assured the current large airtanker operators are mission-ready for deployment to any wildland fire at a moment’s notice and are currently under contract to the US Forest Service to fly on wildfires anywhere in the United States.
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UPDATE by Wildfire Today @ 7:50 p.m. MT, February 17
More information:
List of federally contracted large air tankers in 2010 revised March 30, 2010
The U. S. Air Force, on July 20, officially certified the new Modular Aerial Fire Fighting System, MAFFS II, for the C-130 H & J model aircraft. It was declared “fully operational” in early 2009, but now the Air Force has certified it.
Here is an excellent video about the new MAFFS II that was filmed at the Oshkosh 2009 air show.
The press release from the manufacturer of the MAFFS II, Aero Union Corporation, provides details about the system. In some documents the MAFFS II is described as having a capacity of 3,000 gallons. In others, it is 3,400 gallons. Click on “Fullscreen” for easier reading.
Two wildfires in California are burning tens of thousands of acres and dozens of homes. Here is an excerpt from KABC-TV in Los Angeles:
TEHACHAPI, Calif. (KABC) — Fire crews are working to stop two wildfires in Kern County that have burned dozens of homes, forcing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state emergency.
The largest is the Bull Fire, just north of Kernville, which has burned more than 15,000 acres since Monday and destroyed six homes. It is 5 percent contained.
The West Fire in Tehachapi burned more than 1,230 acres and is threatening more than 100 other buildings. It is 0 percent contained.
At least 30 homes have burned in the area of Old West Ranch community. Officials say the number may grow after fire crews get a chance to go out and assess the damage.
The following video was uploaded to YouTube this morning and reportedly is of two wildfires in California but fails to say which ones. But it is a pretty good assumption that it refers to the Bull and West fires. It has some excellent footage of two Aero Union P-3A air tankers, numbers 21 and 25, making some great drops.
Loadmaster Bill Whitlatch operates a new MAFFS 2 unit aboard a C-130J aircraft Tuesday with the Channel Islands Air National Guard. Photo by Stephen Osman, Ventura County Star.
The U. S. Forest Service has accepted the delivery and started training with two new Mobile Airborne Fire Fighting Systems, MAFFS, which will be used in C-130 aircraft operated by the Air National Guard based at Port Hueneme, California. In development by Aero Union since 2000, the two units are the first of a total of eight new systems, called “MAFFS 2” that should be delivered and ready for firefighting by May. These will replace the older units that have been used for a very long time.
The MAFFS 2 are designed to be rolled into the back of C-130 aircraft and hold about 3,000 3,400 gallons of retardant.
The Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) II tank is displayed for the local media during the MAFFS 2008 annual certifying training at Channel Islands Air Guard Station, Calif., May 7, 2008. US Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Brian E. Christiansen.
Some of the changes in the design include:
The nozzles, instead of exiting out the rear loading dock, are routed through a sealed portal (a modified paratrooper door) on the plane’s left side. This makes it possible for the plane to be pressurized; in addition, the crew and the rear door will no longer be soaked by the retardant.
The old and new MAFFS use compressed air to pump the retardant out of the tanks. The old system required that the aircraft land to be pressurized by a dedicated air compressor system at a MAFFS base. The new system has on-board air compressors, which will enable the C-130’s to reload the retardant at any air tanker base and refill the air tank on the fly, so to speak. It takes 35 minutes to recharge the compressed air tank after a drop.
The retardant is pumped out under greater pressure and velocity. That feature, and the reconfigured side nozzle will result in a denser stream of retardant which will hopefully penetrate timber canopy better than the original systems. This may make it feasible for the pilots to fly higher and faster, adding an additional margin of safety. Pilots hate flying slow and low over mountainous terrain.
The new system delivers retardant at twice the coverage rate of the older systems, at “coverage level 8”, or 8 gallons of fluid per 100 square feet, which is the maximum required by the U. S. Forest Service.
There is one report that claims the new system holds 400 more gallons, but that is not yetnow confirmed. UPDATE: The new single-tank system will hold 3,400 gallons.
MAFFS are operated out of four three Air National Guard bases in California, Colorado, Wyoming, and North Carolina, and a Reserve base in Colorado. Each unit has two MAFFS, however the base in California has not flown any MAFFS for 2 years since the unit upgraded from C-130E’s to J models, which cannot accommodate the original MAFFS. The new units can be used in either C-130 model.
There has been heavy criticism during the last 2 years from politicians and others about the inability of the California C-130’s to use the MAFFS.
The aircraft can be requested by the U. S. Forest Service after it is confirmed that all commercial air tankers are committed. It takes about 24 hours to configure a C-130 to utilize a MAFFS.
Photo of an older MAFFS dropping the retardant out of the rear door. Air Force photo, by Staff Sgt. Alex Koenig.
The U.S. Forest Service has a web site with information about the development of a MAFFS 2 prototype, but it has not been updated since July, 2006.
There are not very many wildland fires burning right now, so to remind you of what a retardant drop looks like, here is Aero Union’s Tanker 00 performing a drop on July 4, 2008 in southern California. It is an actual un-Photoshopped image…. probably taken with a very long telephoto lens, making it appear that the air tanker is very close to the structure.
