Missoula's Neptune Aviation applauds call for new firefighting fleet - The Missoulian

[Aviator]

Missoula's Neptune Aviation applauds call for new firefighting fleet - The Missoulian

A strategy to update the U.S. Forest Service’s aging air tanker
fleet dovetails with local efforts to modernize planes, according
to Missoula-based Neptune Aviation officials.

Last week, Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell called for a new
generation of faster, more cost-effective air tankers to replace
the existing fleet of P2V bombers. Neptune provides nine of the
nation’s 11 federally qualified P2Vs, while Nevada-based Minden
Aviation has the remaining two.

“The Forest Service’s current large air tanker fleet is at least
50 years old and more than half the aircraft face mandatory
retirement within the next 10 years,” Tidwell said in a statement.
New standards would prefer at least a 3,000-gallon retardant
payload, 345-mph minimum cruising speed, and turbine engines.

P2Vs’ rotary engines make about 200 mph and its Korean War-era
airframe had a maximum retardant


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