Aero Union closing down

[Chris Kennedy]

Aero Union appears to be out of business. It will be interesting to see what becomes of their fleet of P-3s.

http://www.chicoer.com/ci_18674972

[cpasley]

They were cited for using "unsafe" aircraft when their primary bombers are the newest ones out there of their type? So its ok to push those poor old P-2's to handle a majority of the workload now, I still say someone should look into convereting the S-3 Viking and now that Boeing is offering the P-8 I hear a lot of countries are going to buy it and retire their fleet of P-3's, seems like those perfectly good planes would have had a good second life as firefighting aircraft but apparently someone high up doesnt feel that way......................


****update - I just found this illistration, seems someone else thinks its a good idea too

[Chris Kennedy]

A couple of companies have been working on BAe-146 conversions for a while but they haven't been accepted by the Forest Service yet. I saw some video of Neptune Aviation's version making a test drop recently, but I can't find it now.

This article is somewhat dated, but it shows the aircraft.

http://wildfiretoday.com/2010/05/26/a-new-air-tanker/