a positive cheerful and proactive lot to be found here !
Would it get there in time.....It wasn't known as the Belslow for no reason....
the slowest aircraft is still an order of magnitude faster than a boat
Think your dreaming.
The engines wouldn’t be the main problem as they could be overhauled, whereas removing the intergranular corrosion in the airframe might present some structural problems, together with a lot of other problems such as old hoses, wiring and seals.
It would be great to see it be dismantled and moved to an aviation museum
how did HARS manage the intragranular corrosion on the constellation?....that had decades worth of corrosive bird crap in it when they recovered it ....corrosion is always a possibility in any aircraft but its not an inevitability.
anyway the Belfast was only buillt in 1964 so its only midlife by Australian GA standards ....being a such a specialized aircraft it probably doesn't have that many hours on it either.
What could possibly go wrong?
Fully loaded with choppers, ground support equipment and all the rest of it and it goes U/S in a foreign country!
The owner will require extremely deep pockets!
Commercial risk? Obviously nothing!
guess who ultimately pays for all these contract fire fighting helicopters?
its probably the only civilian aircraft capable of doing this...there would be extra $$$ for the operators in being able to get from one fire season to the next ASAP