The IL76 approach looks especially interesting. I would think that discharging the fire suppressant over the open rear ramp would involve far fewer modifications to the airframe than would conversion of a commercial aircraft. I'd be interested to know whether this system can be palletized or if it has to be bolted/welded/glued/wedged into the airframe. Thoughts?
There is further information on the IL76 water bomber configuration at
http://www.eastwest-agency.de/fire.htm
What happened to the Beriev Be-200 project? ... Couldn't this be (part of) a solution for the American forest fires? Or doesn't the USA want to buy Russian technology?
AeroLLoyd has a press release posted (see:
http://www.aerolloyd.com/firefighting.htm ) announcing they'd entered into a contract for North American use of an IL76 water bomber, but the release is dated June 1999. I've no idea whether anything ever came of this deal, but I'd be interested to learn more... Sadly, one might argue that policies is as big a threat to firefighting aircrews as the mission is. There are a number of younger, more appropriate airframe types that might be used in US firefighting if only they could break into the market. However, US government contracts, by their nature, tend not to encourage use of, for instance, a shiny new Bombardier 415 (CL415) over an aged DC4 (yes, yes, of course the DC4 can carry something like 70% more "water" then the CL415, but I'm thinking more in terms of airframes that don't have many good hours left in them)...
I've heard of US Federal Emergency Management Agency officials saying things like "we're not going to have any Russians or Russian airplanes coming here to fight this fire," but I'd argue that it has less to do with the specific post-Soviet lineage of aircraft or driver and more to do with the fact that the folks they are rejecting are simply not US companies. If I'm reading the data correctly, something like 653,000 acres have burned in the US already this year. Seems to me that we might consider putting aside at least a portion of our preference for US companies in the interest of doing a more efficient job. Of course, that's just my opinion.
Dave