Forest Service awards ‘next gen’ airtanker contract to Minden Air

[peterose313 345]

A federal contract was awarded Tuesday to Douglas County-based Minden Air Corporation to supply the U.S. Forest Service with "next generation" air tankers that will replace the aging fleet.

Congressman Mark Amodei praised the U.S. Forest Service decision to award Minden Air Corporation the air tankers for wildfire suppression. The Forest Service is transitioning to the next generation air tankers to replace its aging “legacy” fleet.

http://calfire.blogspot.com/2013/05/minden-air-corporation-awarded-federal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CaliforniaFireNews+%28California+Fire+News%29

Edited May 8, 2013 by peterose313

[x635 4,066]

What brand/type of aircraft are they replacing it with?

[peterose313 345]

Next generation air tankers are turbine powered, can carry a minimum of 3,000 gallons of retardant, and have a cruise speed of at least 300 knots when fully loaded. It looks like they're going with DC-10's.

[SteveOFD 176]

What brand/type of aircraft are they replacing it with?

According to the link noted above, Minden Air http://www.mindenair.net/minden/home.html is converting British Aerospace BAE-146 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAe_146 jetliners into air tankers. The "About" section http://www.mindenair.net/minden/about.html of Mindenair.net states that BAE (British Aerospace) will continue support for this aircraft.

[x635 4,066]

Thanks, guys.

Planes are built on a global level now, so shouldn't the contract go to someone like Boeing?

(but Airbus builds A320's in Mobile,AL so does it really matter I guess)

Who operates the 747 tankers?

[peterose313 345]

According to this article there appears to be some controversy over this whole thing.

Hours after the agency announced plans to award $158 million in contracts for seven tankers over five years, at least one business threatened to appeal the move.

The threat mimicked a similar contract dispute last year, which kept a seven-plane fleet from flying during one of the nation's busiest fire seasons. As a result, the nation relied heavily in 2012 on eight Defense Department C-130 aircraft and another fleet of tankers on loan from a Canadian/Alaskan partnership.

[SteveOFD 176]

Thanks, guys.

Planes are built on a global level now, so shouldn't the contract go to someone like Boeing?

(but Airbus builds A320's in Mobile,AL so does it really matter I guess)

Who operates the 747 tankers?

It looks like Evergreen International Aviation http://www.evergreenaviation.com/supertanker/index.html is operating the Supertanker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/747_air_tanker.

It appears that this aircraft is not on the 2013 contract list according to AirTanker.org http://airtanker.org/2013/usda-intent-to-award-nextgen-airtanker-contracts-announced/. It appears that the only "large" aircraft on the list is a DC-10

[peterose313 345]

According to the link noted above, Minden Air http://www.mindenair.net/minden/home.html is converting British Aerospace BAE-146 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAe_146 jetliners into air tankers. The "About" section http://www.mindenair.net/minden/about.html of Mindenair.net states that BAE (British Aerospace) will continue support for this aircraft.

What brand/type of aircraft are they replacing it with?

According to the article I posted above (see controversy comment) 10 Tanker Air Carrier and Coulson Aircrane (USA) Inc. (same owner as Coulson Aviation) received contracts for the new planes.

[peterose313 345]

7 of the 8 "legacy" tankers are currently fielded by Neptune. If no protest if filed, the planes must be flight ready within 60 days of the contract being finalized. If one is filed, the Government Accountability Office must make a ruling within 100 days.

Edited May 9, 2013 by peterose313