by Jack
Last night the Chico Air Museum hosted a lecture and slide show by Ravi Saip, President of Air Spray, Chico. Mr. Saip spoke to a large audience about the timeline of air tankers and future of aerial firefighting. He noted many of the engineering challenges they (Air Spray) currently face in building modern jet air tankers in the USA and Canada.
His talk was interspersed with detailed pictures of what goes into converting a passenger jet into an air tanker. He also had some very dramatic photos of air tankers fighting forest fires at very low levels. In the last part of the show, the hanger doors were rolled back and attendees were treated to a rare visit inside a large jet aircraft that had recently been converted over to a tanker. The tanker was a 4 engine BAC 146 that had formerly been a Peruvian Airliner.
