B-36 firefighting Aircraft Idea

[Cobra]

Hey Guys, with all the Talk about fighting Forest Fires, What If the B-36 were Converted for Fighting Forest Fires? just an Idea i had while wondering if the B-36 could be Used for such a Mission. think it would be a Worthwhile WHIF? Thanks for looking.Dan

[Gondor]

Interesting idea, practicalities make it unworkable in real life, water weighs a lot and it takes a lot of time to load it into a great big aircraft like the B-36........ saying that, if you used pre filled water tanks and loaded them into the bomb bays that would speed up the turn around time. As time is also an issue when fighting fires the large transit time to and from any fire from an airfield that take a B-36 will also make it impracticable along with the aircraft's inability to get down and dirty among the weeds to drop its load exactly where its needed.

However, after saying all that, this is what if, its a crazy idea and sounds like fun. I would seriously suggest building it in 1/144^th scale though as the 1/72^nd kit is a big un.

Gondor

[pyro-manic]

Maybe rather than having it drop the water from tanks, have it carry bombs filled with water or fire retardant chemicals, with daisy-cutter fuses to spread it over a decent area of fire. That way it could stay at a decent altitude, and cover a large area of the fire front?

[philp]

Well, since there are a couple of DC-10s and Boeing 747s doing the job today, I don't see a real issue, especially if you are dropping retardant instead of water.

Scheme wise I would look at some of the B-17 firebomber schemes which would more fit the timeline of the plane.