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Super Scooper Aircraft
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Super Scooper Comes To Nevada's Aid
Narrator: These pilots fly what's called a Super Scooper. It cost around $30 million to build, making it one of the most expensive aerial firefighting aircraft ever built.
Tim Sheehy: It's actually a ship with huge wings and it's built like a tank. It is unlike any other plane in the world.
Narrator: The CL-415 Advanced Airborne Firefighter can put 1,400 gallons of water on a wildfire in minutes. Compared to a 1970s plane, it can only drop 200 gallons of water at a time.
Narrator: Super Scoopers revolutionized aerial firefighting, and Insider takes a closer look at Bridger Aerospace to learn how the aircraft was purpose-built for firefighting. Airplanes have been used to fight wildfires for nearly 100 years, but initial attempts weren't all that effective.
County Fire Dept. Demonstrates 'super Scooper' Aircraft As Fire Season Opens
Sheehy: In the 1950s and 1960s, almost all firefighting aircraft were decommissioned or salvaged World War II aircraft. The tank is strapped in the middle and used in a very casual, makeshift fashion.
Narrator: Some of these makeshift firefighting aircraft can only fire 150 to 200 gallons of water at a time.
Sheehy: Doesn't really work in today's world, but it was the best they could do at the time.
Narrator: Viking Airways in 2020, it modernized the CL-215 by using new avionics, turbine engines and more to power it.
Bombardier Cl 415 Super Scooper Firefighting Aircraft Parking Editorial Image
Narrator: Weighing 30,000 pounds, the CL-415EAF is 9 feet long and has a 93-foot wingspan, just 24 feet less than the Boeing 737's wingspan.
Sheehy: When you look at them, they don't look like aerobatic or demonstration aircraft. We took an aircraft almost the size of a C-130 and flew it into extremely narrow canyons, extremely low altitudes, high spin speeds and high g turns. It is rare to fly such a large and low aircraft in such a dangerous environment.
Narrator: The Scooper is very agile because the pilot uses the flight control surfaces or aerodynamics to adjust and control the aircraft. In any aircraft, the primary control surfaces are the ailerons, which control the rotation of the aircraft; the rudder, which controls the aircraft's yaw, or direction; and the elevator, which controls the aircraft's pitch. For the Super Scooper, these flight control surfaces are very large.
Sheehy: That's important because when you're flying slow and big, you have to have a lot of aileron area, a lot of lift area to move the plane as fast as possible at those low speeds.
When Fires Rage In Socal, These High Flying Canadians Come To The Rescue
Narrator: That's why this rudder is 25 square feet larger than a Boeing 737-900, even though the Super Scooper is 10 feet shorter and half as tall. This is very important to Scooper. It needs to slow down to 90 knots, or just over 100 mph, to do a scoop. That's almost half the plane's standard cruising speed.
Sheehy: Once you identify your scoop sites and step in, you check out your pre-collection checklist. One of these items is "drilling".
Sheehy: The way the plane absorbs water, it doesn't stall or absorb water, so there's no vacuum, it collects. It's going through what you see here, two palm-sized detectors, on either side of the keel of the plane, put together, and they activate once you're in the water. You can feel it in the cockpit. You must be ready to grab the yoke.
Narrator: It takes Scooper 12 seconds to fill his tank with 1,400 gallons of water, during which time the pilot must maintain the speed and direction of the plane.
Super Scooper' Pilot Training To Fight Arizona Wildfires
Sheehy: When the plane is full and the fuel tanks are full, you pull the probe back. As these probes rose, there were noticeable fluctuations in the plane. Accelerate the plane again to take off.
Barrett Farrell: If you look at the wing, it has a very wide arc. This is called camber, and it creates a huge amount of lift.
Narrator: But aerodynamics isn't the only factor involved. The plane is equipped with a turboprop engine that generates enough power to lift it off the ground.
Sheehy: These things are very durable. Of course you don't want to hit anything with them, but if it's ash or debris being pushed up from the heat of the fire, those engines will chew it up and keep going.
Super Scooper' Aircraft Sucks Water To Douse Washington State Fire
Narrator: All of this gets Scooper up to his previous height in about three minutes.
Farrell: So, when we lined up the airdrops, the airstrikes would get us to the target. They come into contact with people who need surface water. We take terrain, wind and altitude into account when we need to press a button to descend.
Narrator: It takes only two seconds for the aircraft to unload its full load, which is too short a time for the pilot to operate.
Narrator: But the Super Scooper's high-lift wings and turboprop engines allow it to respond to forest fires from lower altitudes and faster than other firefighting aircraft. Aircraft like the 747 Supertanker and DC-10 can drop from 200 to 250 feet, while the Super Scooper can drop from 100 feet above the fire.
No Us Super Scoopers Baffles Former Fire Chiefs
Sheehy: The ability to quickly adapt to changes in terrain, other aircraft in the area, or obstacles in the smoke is critical when fighting fires at low altitudes, and when traveling through mountains, smoke, and trees.
Narrator: After performing the drop, the Scooper can return to the water source to re-pick up the charge instead of refilling the ground.
Farrell: So, bit by bit, it really depends on how close we are to the water source, but I've had fires where we've been dripping some water every six minutes.
Narrator: Depending on the situation, the plane can go up to six hours between refueling, which means it can fight fires longer than other planes that need to be refueled every two hours.
Bombardier Cl 415 Super Scooper Firefighting Aircraft Parked Editorial Image
Sheehy: While the plane has a very expensive sticker price, it can carry 150,000 gallons in a single day of service, a fraction of which a more traditional tanker typically carries. It's actually the most cost-effective aerial firefighting asset.
Turner: The paint job on these aircraft is gorgeous, and one of the questions we get asked a lot is, why is it painted like that? The goal is to be visible in this super-thick smoke. It's a very action-packed course because these guys are putting out fires and the end goal is safety.
Sheehy: The next frontier for aerial firefighting will be data. It will understand why fires are happening, where they are going, where they are coming from, and be able to share that data with the widest possible group of people. This can better inform our air response, better inform our ground response, and ensure that affected citizens are given the best possible information to protect themselves, their families, and their livelihoods.
Narrator: Meanwhile, aerial firefighting aircraft like the Super Scooper are tasked with controlling forest fires.
Two Canadian 'super Scooper' Planes Arrive In L.a. County For Peak Fire Season
Sheehy: Flying this aircraft in our environment is very exciting, very dangerous, but also very fun. Copyright © 2023, Los Angeles Times | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | CA Collection Notice | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
A pair of bright yellow and red firefighting planes affectionately dubbed "Super Buckets" landed at Van Nuys Airport on Saturday afternoon.
Firepower leased by Los Angeles County from the Canadian province of Quebec has become an important part of the county's firepower arsenal.
They can fly at 200 miles per hour and collect 1,620 gallons (48 barrels) of water in just 12 seconds. After unloading the cargo on the fiery slopes, they glide across the sea or a large lake to refill the tanks.
County, Fire Officials Welcome Super Scoopers For 2020 Fire Season
The county first rented them on an experimental basis from our neighbor to the north during the 1994 fire season. They have been helping firefighters fight forest fires ever since.
Technically known as a fixed-wing Canadian Bombardier CL-415, the Superspoon is based in Los Angeles. It will be officially in service on Monday, according to the county fire department.
Deborah Netburn talks faith, spirituality and joy for the Los Angeles Times. from the times
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