Category Transports

The one-of-a-kind Antonov AN-225 Mriya (which translated means Dream) is a super-sized cargo transport aircraft. A second, partly-completed airframe was known to exist, and every once in a while a rumor surfaces that it too will be completed and put into operation, but there is no concrete evidence of this twin being activated at this time. Since it is a rare visitor to any airport, when (what was once called) the “largest aircraft in the world” is scheduled for a visit, crowds flock to see it. I’ve seen it three times now, in three different decades for three different reasons. A fourth time eluded me, as it flew over my home… and on top of a broken cloud layer. I heard it loud and clear though!

The aircraft was built in Kiev, Ukraine by the Antonov Company specifically to haul t...

As you travel on Interstate 10 in Arizona, approximately 25 miles north of Tucson, an Aviation Oasis catches your eye. Large aircraft tails can be seen in the distance rising from the Sonoran Desert floor. Just as you’re saying to yourself, “what is that?”, a highway sign directs you to the Pinal County Airpark at the next exit.

The sign is effective, judging by the traffic on the road. Recreational Vehicles and large travel trailers pass you on your way in and out. There is an out of the way restaurant on site but I assume everyone just wants to get a closer look at the large commercial airliners parked there. Pinal Airpark is a Logistics Airport supporting maintenance, temporary storage and salvage of commercial aircraft. It is the largest such facility in the world...

This is the first part of two… looking at current and past aerial firefighting machines.

Aerial firefighting is a crucial asset and a dangerous job; a recent event in in Australia showed the worst case during an already tragic bushfire season in that country. A Coulson Aviation C-130 aerial tanker crashed while on a firefighting mission, tragically killing its three person crew.

10 Tanker DC-10 unloads fire retardant near a blaze

The use of aerial platforms to help fight and/or contain a large land fire has roots that go as far back as the late 1920s in the United States, although the 1950’s saw widespread use of systems that are basically still in use today.

Piston-engine P-2V Neptune anti-submarine/patrol bombers have recently been retired

Original air tankers – which were usually s...