Tanker 912 (DC-10) downhill fire retardant drop!

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Nicely done. The DC-10 was NWA's favorite on their long haul (international) flights. But flying as a passenger in a cross continental flight in one of these was just pure torture. It was horrible - noisy, uncomfortable literally a sardine can. Well duh no surprise its a "tanker" derived from KC-10 I believe. I mean how far can you go converting a military transport/utility aircraft into a "passenger" one.
 
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Did he want to lay that soup on top of the unburned ridge to be a fire stop, or did he miss the fire as he dove in? Yes, a noisy aircraft. I think the last that Northwest flew were 6 cargo jobs and it's been a number of years now. I still have the Fedex and UPS DC 10 cargos going over every day-could be the same old NW planes.
 
The larger planes usually lay down a break on a ridge for the fire not to pass. Small planes and helicopters attack the fire.

The small plane at the beginning of the video is a USFS spotter plane that leads the large plane and tells it exactly where to drop.
 
The cool thing about the 10 tanker planes is, because they have an external tank and everything is stripped out of the interior; even fully loaded max, they're 40% under maximum gross weight and routinely takeoff even lighter, which means it's very maneuverable for such a large plane.
 
Originally Posted By: Lapham3
I think the last that Northwest flew were 6 cargo jobs and it's been a number of years now. I still have the Fedex and UPS DC 10 cargos going over every day-could be the same old NW planes.


Northwest never flew DC-10 Freighters - the only freighters Northwest flew were the 747-200 airplanes which were phased out in 2002-2004 time frame.

Northwest did fly 2 different versions of the DC-10: DC-10-40 was a Northwest configuration with center landing gear and Pratt and Whitney engines. In the early 90's Northwest purchased several used DC-10-30's from Swissair that had the center gear but had General Electric engines.

The Northwest DC-10 fleet during the later years did not have a high dispatch reliability, and if I recall correctly, we were the last major US carrier to retire the fleet. The DC-10 was a blast to fly though - the cockpit had huge windows and the control column fit your hands like a glove. A real pilots airplane that flew very well.

757guy
 
The DC-10 won out in the trijet wars between it (and the MD-11) and the L1011 TriStar. I suppose there's a reason that TriStars were retired whereas the Death Cruiser continues in service and lives a second life as a cargo plane and tanker.
 
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