Coulson had recently outfitted a huge Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter with equipment that could drop 3,000 gallons of water or fire-retardant chemical—about 10 times what the more commonly used Bell 412 helicopter can unload- in a little more than two seconds. Unlike a fixed-wing firebomber such as a Boeing 747 or Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which can carry similar loads, a Chinook doesn’t have to return to an airport to refill. It can stick up water from a river or lake and shuttle back and forth to a fire, dramatically multiplying the tonnage it drops per hour.
The Chinook had another potential advantage: It could fight fire at night. The company had spent a decade working out how pilots could safely fly these copters low to the ground in darkness using night vision goggles
Businessweek (sub required)
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