Editor,

During the Vietnam War, the military modified several C-130 aircraft to gun ships with much firepower. They would fly these aircraft in tight circles around a small ground target and direct their guns on that target.

Why not borrow this technique to fight forest fires? Instead of bullets, it is pouring water, lots of water, on the target area, and accurately.

The benefits are immense. Firefighters in the aircraft would have the ability to accurately put large amounts of water anywhere on the fire and  with little wasted.

Second, with a little imagination, one can visualize that, with an adequate number of tanker aircraft on the scene, a fire can be systematically and totally extinguished from one end of the fire line to the other in much less time, and solely from the air.

Each aircraft working as a team would extinguish the gaps and other areas. With this capability there is no need to make fire breaks, etc., thus saving manpower.

Also, since the aircraft can accurately deliver huge amounts of water to a small area on the ground, another ideal application of it is to fight structure fires where the fire has broken through the roof.

Since this capability does not exist with today’s equipment, it should be considered a major breakthrough.

The concept is to use large, used aircrafts like 747s, install a controllable “water cannon,” an operator’s position, large tanks, a huge pump and plumbing.

To maximize the amount of water that can be carried, all unnecessary items should all be removed.

Since these tanker aircraft must fly circles around the target area, an enhancement of the GPS display would add a circle around the target spot whose diameter is chosen by the pilot.

This will show where the aircraft is relative to the circle that is being flown, an aid to the pilot.

Joseph Coomer

Oak Harbor