California fire fighting air tanker operator relocates to Casper, Wyoming

The company behind the DC-10 tanker aircraft that helped battle Casper Mountain’s Sheep Herder Hill Fire in September will soon relocate its business to Casper, airport officials announced Tuesday.

Currently headquartered in Victorville, Calif., 10 Tanker Air Carrier LLC http://www.10tanker.com/ will transport its two DC-10 aircraft and roughly 16 employees to the Casper/Natrona County International Airport as early as June, President and CEO Rick Hatton said. Hatton said his company is the only group to fight wildfires with DC-10s — passenger aircraft he has gutted and outfitted with tanks capable of holding 100,000 pounds of fire retardant and water. That’s roughly four times the capacity of the next-largest firefighting aircraft, Hatton said.

By LEAH TODD Star-Tribune staff writer

Full Story: http://trib.com/news/local/casper/one-of-a-kind-air-tanker-operator-lands-in-casper/article_07723a3d-a926-59b4-900d-202db4eb652f.html

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Forest Service invites DC-10 slurry bomber for Missoula demonstration

The 10 Tanker Air Carrier jet was one of the largest planes ever to land in Missoula, and one of the biggest to be reconfigured for dropping retardant on forest fires.

"When we first come on the scene, they scatter everybody out of the way," Maxey told a crowd of U.S. Forest Service air-attack personnel who came out to see the plane. "Then we do a drop, and they see – well, it’s just an airplane."

By Rob Chaney

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/local/forest-service-invites-dc–slurry-bomber-for-missoula-demonstration/article_acbb479c-ad45-11e2-a780-001a4bcf887a.html