The Arizona Republic reports that the Boeing 747-400 series passenger jet converted for firefighting recently underwent maintenance at Pinal Airpark outside Tucson. The retrofitted aircraft has been used to fight wildfires in California, Chile, Israel and elsewhere. TUCSON, Ariz. - The Global SuperTanker, the world’s largest firefighting aircraft, is ready for the upcoming wildfire season. An early version of the SuperTanker was first used during a 2009 fire in Alaska that burned more than 500,000 acres (202,347 hectares). Hale calls the pressurized tank system the “world’s largest and fastest squirt gun.”The SuperTanker was deployed in Israel in 2016 and in Chile in 2017.

Source: thestar May 26, 2019 14:48 UTC