Global Supertanker has started airborne drop tests of the 747-400 Supertanker they have been working on since last year. The first drop occurred Sunday, May 1 near Marana, Arizona, and it was described by the company as a “successful test flight”. Most air tanker companies do the initial tests with water, which is far less expensive than fire retardant, and does not have as many restrictions about where it can be dropped — 19,200 gallons at a time.

Most of the retardant delivery system was taken from Version 1.0 of the 747-100 Supertanker that was built and used for several years by Evergreen. When that company declared bankruptcy Global Supertanker bought the system and the intellectual property. They refurbished the hardware and upgraded parts of it, then installed it in an upgraded aircraft, a 747-400. It was first seen by the general public at the Aerial Firefighting Conference March 22 at McClellan Air Field near Sacramento.

Evergreen’s 747-100 SuperTanker first dropped on a fire in 2009 and last received Call When Needed contracts from CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service in 2013. However, shortly after receiving those contracts, Evergreen looked at the cost of a pending very expensive c-check, and “postponed” the availability of the aircraft until the 2014 fire season. Not long after that the financial difficulties led to the demise of the program at Evergreen. Several of the folks that were involved with the system there are now working at Global Supertanker.