Flying Firefighters Supertankers May be Based at Victorville

At the edge of the Mojave Desert, a growing regional airport already is the home of giants - huge jetliners, huge helicopters, huge hangars.

Now, a key official at Southern California Logistics Airport has a new vision: Create the nation's first home base for commercially owned firefighting supertankers and heli-tankers.

A few of the aircraft already are parked there. They include a DC-10 jumbo jet that last year became the nation's first supertanker, with a 12,000-gallon payload that's four times the capacity of the largest conventional tankers. Nearby are five of the nation's largest helicopters, three with long histories as firefighting heli-tankers.

"What's holding us up is that we don't have continued funding (for the coming fire season) for the DC-10," airport marketing director Jim Worsham said about his idea for a supertanker base.

But the desert airport is a perfect location for the base, he said, because it has excellent flying weather, no significant air traffic to delay firefighting flights, longer runways than LAX to accommodate the most heavily laden supertankers, and maintenance facilities for the largest aircraft, including Boeing 747s, one of which is seeking federal certification as a tanker.

The airport apparently is the first to pursue the idea of a supertanker base. Worsham would like to make the base available to U.S. Forest Service conventional tankers, too, he said. But the centerpiece is the DC-10 that already calls the airport home.

The jetliner-turned-air tanker is owned by 10 Tanker Air Services and needs contracts worth up to $7 million to fight fires all next summer and fall.

If the supertanker gets funding, Worsham said, airport officials will immediately start building a permanent tanker base, complete with a headquarters building and permanent high-capacity, fire-retardant loading pits.

However, Worsham and his allies face an uphill battle.

SEARCHING FOR MONEY

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection used the giant jet on a handful of fires last season, based on an evaluation contract that paid 10 Tanker $1.1 million. But CDF officials say they can't afford to issue a $5 million to $7 million fulltime contract.

And the Forest Service, which typically funds the nation's largest conventional air tankers, says the DC-10 hasn't passed all of its safety tests and therefore is ineligible for a federal contract.

So a new approach is being considered - spreading the cost among a consortium of government agencies and, conceivably, even private individuals and organizations.

"Everyone wants to have (the DC-10) available, but no one wants to pay for it until it's needed. And that's not going to work," said Rick Hatton, managing partner of 10 Tanker Air Services. "My objective is to find state, county and city entities - any local agencies - in the West that want to ensure the availability of this tool.

"I think there's a way to share this asset, because it's rarely needed in two places simultaneously. And because of its speed, it can service . . . a wide geographic area."

So far, there are no takers.

Still, Hatton and a company that owns the five heli-tankers endorse the Southern California Logistics Airport as a perfect base.

"It seems ideal," Hatton said. "A very high proportion of the (largest) West Coast fires are in Southern California because of the heat, the terrain and the fuel.