Tag: T-979

747 Supertanker still stored at Marana, but now has engines

747 Supertanker, Marana — 747 Supertanker at Marana, AZ,, May 31, 2015. Florida Metal photo used with permission.

The 747 Supertanker, formerly owned by Evergreen until the company went bankrupt, has been in storage at Marana, Arizona for at least a couple of years. Most of that time Tanker 979 it has not had engines, but these photos from December, 2014 and May 31, 2015 show engines on the aircraft.

We attempted to call our former contacts at Evergreen, and not surprisingly, the phone number is no longer in service. So we’re not sure what’s going on with the Supertanker. Maybe it’s being prepped to be sold, or has been sold, however the registration still lists Evergreen International Airlines as the owner of #N479EV. Or maybe the owner had hoped to get one of the Call When Needed contracts that were awarded a few weeks ago.

“Florida Metal”, who gave us permission to use the May 31, 2015 photo, told us:

I saw about 3 Evergreen Supertankers there, or at least painted that way. There were another bunch of Evergreen 747s sitting there. They all had their engines on them so they might fly again, but being that these are 100 series not sure if they will bother and maybe instead convert a newer 400?

Evergreen produced two versions of the Supertanker that we are aware of. The first had rather crude tanks and could not carry the weight of retardant in the tanks. It was only authorized to use water, which is about a pound lighter per gallon, so it never received a contract with the U.S. Forest Service as an air tanker. Then the company converted another 747 with higher-tech, lighter tanks, which enabled it to use 20,000 gallons of retardant. It received certification from the Interagency AirTanker Board in March, 2009 and got a CAL FIRE contract in July, 2009, but only as a Call When Needed air tanker.

Evergreen's 747 "Supertanker" — Evergreen’s 747 “Supertanker” drops on the Railbelt Complex of fires in Alaska, July 31, 2009.

When it received a CWN contract from the USFS on June 14, 2013, the aircraft had been sitting at Marana without engines and needed a million-dollar “C” check in addition to other maintenance. The company decided that with an expensive expedited “C” check and the other needed work, it could have been ready to fight fire about the time the 2013 western fire season was drawing to a close. And the CWN contract had no guarantee of any revenue. So Bob Soelberg, the Vice President of Evergreen Supertanker Services, said they would wait until the next year to get the maintenance done. A few months later the company ceased to exist.

747 air tanker 979 — Tanker 979 at San Bernardino Air Tanker Base, July 30, 2010. USFS photo.

—Articles on Fire Aviation tagged “747”.
—Articles on Wildfire Today tagged “747 air tanker” (some of them before Fire Aviation was created in November, 2012).

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Joe.

Evergreen postpones availability of their 747 Supertanker

747 dropping in Haifa Israel December 5, 2010

After initially thinking their 747 Supertanker would be available in mid- to late September, Evergreen has reconsidered and expects to have it ready for the 2014 wildfire season.

The U.S. Forest Service awarded the company a Call When Needed contract on June 14, but the aircraft was sitting in Marana, Arizona with the engines removed and safely in storage. After receiving the contract Evergreen scheduled a needed C check which would have started August 2 and depending on what was found during the process would have been ready to fly in mid- to late September — about the time the western wildfire season begins to wind down. The cost of the C check is over a million dollars.

Today Bob Soelberg, the Vice President of Supertanker Services, said they have reconsidered, and…

…concluded there was insufficient fire season remaining to justify the expense of an expedited C check as well as several system or component upgrades. The availability of a facility certified to complete the inspection and the unknown return on investment implied in a CALL WHEN NEEDED contract only complicated the decision.

Evergreen is going to defer the required airline level maintenance until later this year or early in 2014. Mr. Soelberg said they expect to have the 747 Supertanker in a position to be fully operational with all checks, inspections and carding complete before the 2014 season begins.

Our view

In a perfect world the U.S. Forest Service would get their shit together and issue all aerial firefighting contracts no later than December, to begin in the following spring or summer, instead of procrastinating as they have been doing issuing them in mid-summer. Giving a vendor zero time to get a multi-million dollar aircraft up and running is not realistic. The companies that received the next generation air tanker contracts and those that will be competing in the next few weeks for a scooper contract would no doubt agree.

747 Evergreen T-979

Video and photos of the 747 dropping

Since the Evergreen 747 Supertanker may be coming back into our lives it might be a good time to refresh our memories of what it can do with 20,000 gallons.

These two photos was taken by a firefighter in Mexico in 2011. (UPDATE: Walt said in a comment June 20 the two photos below are from an “unpressurized ‘clean out’ (jettison)”. Videos of T979 dropping on fires show appropriate drop altitudes. One of the pilots on the clean-out jettison was a highly regarded 16-year initial attack airtanker pilot that would have mutinied if a drop on a fire was done at that AGL altitude.”)

747 dropping on a fire in Mexico, April 14, 2011 (click to enlarge)

747 in Mexico, April 14, 2011 (click to enlarge)

The first video, below, is a KABC-TV News segment from May 31st, 2006 covering the 747 Supertanker demo in San Bernardino, CA. The video also includes some stock footage of the aircraft dropping during the Interagency AirTanker Board tests.

The second video below shows the 747 dropping water at Central Ciudad Real in Spain, July 21, 2009.

And next we have the 747 dropping on the Crown Fire at Anaverde, which I believe is near Palmdale, California, July 31, 2010.

And finally, below, a water dropping demo at McClellan in California, June 11, 2009.

747 Evergreen Mexico T-979

Evergreen to get CWN contract for 747

We will classify this as Breaking News. Evergreen has not had a Call When Needed (CWN) contract for their 20,000-gallon 747 Supertanker for a while, but they will get a new three-year CWN contract beginning July 1, 2013.

When the company had a CWN contract before, the aircraft was very rarely used, making it difficult for the company to justify maintaining the ship and the flight crew in a ready to go state. It will be interesting to see if it sits, or actually drops retardant on fires.

Maybe the U.S. Forest Service, the agency that awarded the contract, is looking for a stop-gap, to fill the void until the all seven “next generation” air tankers that recently received exclusive use contracts become fully certified. Only one of the seven is, the DC-10.

The CWN contract for 10 Tanker’s second DC-10, Tanker 910, will also be renewed for three years on July 1. It was activated Friday morning and flew to Albuquerque.

The other DC-10, Tanker 911, recently got a five-year exclusive use contract. It has been busy for the last two weeks dropping on fires in California, New Mexico, and Colorado

(UPDATE June 15, 2013)

Thanks to John, we have the numbers in the contracts:

Evergreen 747 – Daily Rate $75,000 + Flight Rate $12,000
10 Tanker DC-10 – Daily Rate $51,522 + Flight Rate $7,668

More details about the prices in the contract awards.

(UPDATE at 2:25 p.m. MT, June 17, 2013)

I was wondering why the contract for the 747 does not start until July 1. Today I found on an aircraft forum what might be the answer — in February, 2012, the Supertanker was photographed in the desert missing two engines.

(UPDATED info HERE, August 22, 2013)

747 CWN Evergreen T-979

Air tanker drops, as seen from a lead plane

The video below which shows dozens of air tanker drops is very interesting. Most of the video was shot from a lead plane, with views rarely seen by most of us. The technical quality of the video is not great — low resolution and a little shaky — but it’s very worth viewing. Occasionally you can see the smoke generated by a BLM lead plane which marks the target for the air tanker.

Some of the aircraft include: P-3, P2V, S2T, DC-10, C-130 MAFFS, and an air tanker that is very rarely seen, Evergreen’s 747.

747 air tanker DC-10 P2V P3 S2T T-979

Evergreen’s 747 Supertanker assigned to fires in Mexico

File photo of the 747 dropping in Haifa Israel Dec 5 2010

Evergreen’s 747 Supertanker is en route to Mexico to help suppress five fires that are burning in the state of Coahuila, which shares a border with Texas. The aircraft departed Pinal Air Park near Tucson this afternoon and arrived at Lackland Air Force base near San Antonio, Texas at 5:21 MT today.

Steve Daniels of Evergreen told Wildfire Today that he expects the 747 to make its first drops later today. Lackland is about 140 miles from the fires, 15-20 minutes in a 747, so the Supertanker will be based at Lackland and will be reloading retardant there also. The Supertanker cruises at 500-550 knots (575 to 632 mph), which will mean the ship can do turn-arounds in about an hour, that is, depart Lackland, travel to the fires, drop, return, and reload. Evergreen has arranged for ICL Performance Products to have four to five trucks waiting at Lackland with tanks of already-mixed retardant.

Daniels said the Supertanker will be working through Conafor, the Comisión Nacional Forestal.

As far as we are aware, the last time the 747 was used on a fire was in December, 2010, when it made several drops on a wildfire in Israel.

Map of Mexico and Texas fires 4-12-2011 — NASA image, showing the fires in southwest Texas and the Mexican state of Coahuila, April 10, 2011 at 11:30 p.m. MT.

Below is more information about the fires in Mexico, from the Latin American Herald Tribune:

747 air tanker air tanker T-979

Evergreen’s 747 Supertanker deployed to fight fires in Israel

Ben Johnston from Evergreen International Airlines told Wildfire Today this afternoon that their 747 Supertanker, Air Tanker 979, is being deployed to help fight the wildfires in Israel. He said they are scrambling to get to Tel Aviv with an expected arrival at midnight Saturday after which they will go into crew rest. They expect to be ready to operate in the country on Sunday.

Earlier today Wildfire Today covered the international response to the fires in Israel which includes approximately 24 firefighting aircraft from 11 countries. But make that 25 aircraft from 12 countries now that the 747 is involved.

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UPDATE @ 10:29 p.m. MT, December 3, 2010

The 747 departed KMZJ (Pinal Airpark) at 10:09 PM MST enroute to KJFK (John F Kennedy Intl) for an estimated arrival at 02:01 a.m. MST. They are cruising at 626 mph! Where’s the fire? Oh, right.

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UPDATE @ 10:00 a.m. MT, December 4, 2010

The 747 Supertanker departed JFK today at 5:57 a.m. MT. Their ETA at Ben Gurion International (LLBG/TLV) in Israel is 4:11 p.m. MT. As this is written,they are cruising at 503 to 575 mph and are halfway across the Atlantic Ocean.

We have an updated article on the fires in Israel, including information about the U.S. National Guard’s C-130 MAFFS air tankers being deployed to Israel.

747 air tanker air tanker T-979

747 air tanker deployed in California

Evergreen’s 747 “Supertanker”, Tanker 979, was activated yesterday and used on Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Crown fire (map) near Palmdale.

Tanker 979 dropping on the Crown Fire July 30, 2010. Photo: Kit Fox

When it was dispatched it was at Pinal Airpark near Marana, Arizona. From there it flew at 616 mph (Mach 0.81) at 28,000 feet and landed at San Bernardino International Airport 55 minutes later. According to John Miller, Deputy Public Affairs Officer for the San Bernardino National Forest who provided the first and third of these photos, it is being supported by the USFS’ San Bernardino Airtanker Base.

The tanks on the Supertanker have a capacity of 21,000 gallons, but yesterday, due to density altitude, it only carried 19,000 gallons in the single drop it made on the Crown fire, according to Leslie Casavan, Manager of the Airtanker Base. ONLY. That’s almost twice as much as the huge DC-10 Tanker 911, and six times as much as the “large air tankers” that have a maximum capacity of 3,000 gallons, such as a C-130.

KESQ has a good video report about the Supertanker.

The USFS has the huge air tanker under a Call When Needed contract this year. CAL FIRE may also have it under a CWN contract.

747 air tanker air tanker T-979

747 Supertanker staged for oil spill

Evergreen has moved their 747 air tanker, or Supertanker, from Oregon to the Gulfport, Mississippi airport in hopes of getting a contract to drop dispersants on the Gulf oil spill. The company is talking with BP, the Coast Guard, and the Air force, giving them the facts about the 20,000-gallon capacity of the huge air tanker. Currently two C-130’s are being usedto drop dispersants, each carrying 5,000 gallons.

747 air tanker T-979

747 air tanker makes first drop on live fire in lower 48 states

Evergreen’s 747 “Supertanker” made its first drop on a live fire in the lower 48 states today. Flying out of McClellan near Sacramento it made at least two drops on the Station fire. It split its 20,000 gallon capacity into two separate drops of about 10,000 gallons each, without having to make the 55-minute one-way return trip to McClellan to reload.

The Fox TV station out of Los Angeles got two of the drops on tape. Click on the image below to play the video. (UPDATE: the video is no longer available)

The plane may also have dropped earlier in the day on a fire near Yucaipa, southeast of Los Angeles.

As Wildfire Today reported on July 30, the 747 made its first drop on a live fire in Spain in mid-July. The second fire it dropped on was the Railbelt Complex in Alaska on July 31. If it also dropped on the Yucaipa fire earlier today, then the Station fire was the fourth fire it has dropped on.

Here are a couple of screen grabs from today’s video.

Below is the photo of the 747 on the Railbelt Complex in Alaska on July 31 that we published on August 1.

747 air tanker air tanker Evergreen Station Fire T-979