英文原文

Tricked-out jet combats Calif. blaze

Tanker 979" pressed into service by deadly fires in Southern California

The biggest fire-fighting jet on the planet started duty Monday combating the deadly fires around Los Angeles. It is a converted Boeing 747, dubbed Tanker 979.

If it performs as well as expected over the next few days, it could not only mean less destruction of buildings and lives, but big business for the plane’s owner, McMinnville, Oregon-based Evergreen International Aviation.

Fighting fires from helicopters and planes is not new, but nothing comes close to the fire-snuffing capacity of this former freight jet.

After a design and conversion process that cost $50 million, according to the private company’s chairman Timothy Wahlberg, the supertanker can spray 20,000 gallons of flame retardant from four-16-inch nozzles mounted on the fuselage in a pattern that amounts to a rain shower the width of a football field and three miles long.

To put that in perspective, a converted DC-10 that was used to fight fires in California a few years back had about half the capacity, and the typical fire-fighting plane used in forest fires, the P-3 Orion (developed in the ‘60s by the U.S. Navy for ship and submarine reconnaissance), has a capacity of about 3,000 gallons.

Brawn doesn't come cheap: $1 million tab?

Unlike other fire-fighting planes in use, which use gravity to dump their liquid cargo all at once from a fairly low altitude of a few hundred feet, Tanker 979’s payload is released under pressure from onboard compressed air tanks. That means that the jet can fly at a relatively high 600 to 800 feet spraying its payload as it goes, making it safer in theory, even suitable for firefighting at night.

The fire-fighting muscle of Tanker 979 does not come cheap. One report, has it costing about $1 million each time the plane is activated for a drop from its current home at McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif. Wahlberg would not say what the State of California is paying his firm to prep, load and fly the jet, which is under contract until Friday.

“We’ve been paid for three drops so far,” Wahlberg says. “Look, we grub-staked the development of this plane on our own because we thought the firefighting business needed it. Every bit of revenue helps, and we think inside of three years we’ll recover all our research and development money and be on our way.”

Last year California alone spent almost $500 million fighting emergency fires. The global price tag to combat fire runs into the tens of billions. Wahlberg envisions a fleet of 10 supertankers operated by Evergreen in spots around the world, and even more operated by government agencies built with conversion kits sold by Evergreen. The company recently demonstrated its plane in Europe and is talking to agencies in Australia and Indonesia, Wahlberg says. After years of testing and demonstrations, this is the supertanker’s first paying gig, and Wahlberg is aware of all the eyes on his plane.

So far, it’s doing the job by all accounts, laying down fire lines to protect homes near San Bernardino. “Everybody waits to see what’s going to happen when the plane is working on a real fire,” Wahlberg says. “We’ve got one now, a huge one, and already the calls are coming in.”

中文翻译

全球最大的灭火喷气式飞机周一开始执行任务，对抗洛杉矶地区肆虐的大火。该飞机是波音747的改装机型，称为Tanker 979。

如果它能在未来几天里如大家所期望的那样表现良好，那么它不仅能够大大减少大火对建筑物和人员的破坏与伤害，同时也会给飞机的所有者——位于俄勒冈的美国长青国际航空公司（Evergreen International Aviation）带来大买卖。

用直升机和飞机来灭火并不新鲜，但是还没有任何一个在灭火能力方面能和这架曾是货机的喷气式飞机相媲美。

整个设计和改装的过程耗资5千万美元。根据这家私有企业的董事长蒂莫西•沃尔伯格（Timothy Wahlberg）的说法，这架巨型飞机可以从位于机身的4-16英寸的喷嘴中喷洒2万加仑的阻燃剂，这相当于在一个有橄榄球场那么宽，3英里长的区域下了一场阵雨。

从这方面看，几年前在加州用于扑灭大火的改装型DC-10 只具备它一半的能力。而另一种在森林火灾中常用的灭火飞机P-3 Orion （美国海军在60年代开发出的用于轮船和潜艇侦查的机型）只能载3，000加仑的阻燃剂。

“大个头”花费不小：1百万美元？

和其它正在使用的灭火飞机不同，那些飞机凭借重力可以在很低的几百英尺的高度将所承载的液体一次性倒出，而Tanker 979的有效荷载则是通过机上的压缩气罐施压将液体喷出。也就是说，这架喷气式飞机可以在相对较高的600至800英尺，在飞行过程中喷洒出有效荷载，从理论上讲更加安全，甚至适合夜间扑火。

Tanker 979 灭火性能强大，花费可不小。有报道称，飞机每次从位于加州萨克拉门托的麦克莱伦空军基地启动并喷洒一次成本为100万美元，但沃尔伯格不会透露加州政府要向他的公司支付多少飞机准备、装载和飞行的费用，而这些费用在本周五前都是按照合同执行的。

沃尔伯格说：“截止目前，我们一共喷洒了3次。我们自主研制开发这款飞机是因为我们觉得灭火行业需要它。每一笔收入都是有帮助的，我们认为在未来3年中，我们可以收回研制和开发的成本，业务会不断发展。”

去年，仅加州就花费了近5亿美元来扑灭突发性火灾。全球灭火的价码高达数百亿。沃尔伯格预计，将由长青公司运营，在全球范围内建立一个由10架巨型飞机组成的编队。沃尔伯格说，公司最近在欧洲展示了这款飞机，并和澳大利亚、印度尼西亚的机构接洽。经过几年的测试和演示，这是巨型飞机首次有偿“亮相”，沃尔伯格意识到大家的目光都聚焦于此。

目前，根据各种说法，飞机正在发挥作用，喷洒出一个防火隔离带，以保护圣贝纳迪诺附近的房屋。沃尔伯格说：“大家都拭目以待，看看飞机在火灾现场的表现如何。我们已经成功完成了第一个任务，而且是很庞大的任务，还有源源不断的需求。”