Fighting Fires from the Air 



prehensive fire-bombing tests. The Air 

 Forces made available their best equip- 

 ment and personnel ; the Forest Service 

 provided the fire technicians and other 

 facilities. The preparation and study 

 of materiel, ballistics, and application 

 techniques were assigned to the Prov- 

 ing Ground Command, and this phase 

 of the experiment was conducted at 

 Eglin Field, Fla. 



After 18 months of study of factors 

 such as type of bomb and plane, bomb 

 sights, and dropping procedures, the 

 Air Force in the summer of 1947 car- 

 ried the experiments into the forests. 

 The project was moved to Missoula, 

 in the heart of the Rocky Mountains 

 in Montana, where tests could be made 

 under the greatest variety of geo- 

 graphic and meteorological conditions. 



All that summer, a big bomber and 

 two fighter planes, all equipped with 

 modern devices and manned by highly 

 competent personnel, dropped water- 

 filled bombs on test fires. They plas- 

 tered small target fires with mud and 

 water from high altitudes, and they 

 glide-bombed them at treetop level. 

 Big bombs and little bombs were hurled 

 at smokes on mountaintops 8,500 feet 

 above sea level and in the bottoms of 

 narrow canyons. Careful technical 

 study was made of the effectiveness of 

 each bomb drop on the fire. 



Various types of water bomb were 

 used. Some were designed to function 

 through impact, like an egg thrown 

 against the pavement. Others were ex- 

 ploded at varying heights above the 

 treetops by internal burster charges. 

 The experiments tested every reason- 

 able suggestion that bore on an answer 

 to the question : "Can small forest fires 

 be retarded or put out from the air?" 



The answer, according to a board 

 of survey that comprised State for- 

 esters and members of private forest- 

 protective associations and the Forest 

 Service, was affirmative. 



The experiments demonstrated that 

 forest fires, if attacked by water-bomb- 

 ing aircraft while still small, can be 

 retarded, and, under certain condi- 

 tions, extinguished. If facilities for 



515 



bombing are available, many poten- 

 tially dangerous fires can be stopped or 

 held down by bombing until smoke- 

 jumpers or ground forces can reach 

 the scene. Foresters also believe that 

 an attack by a dozen heavy bombers 

 upon the head of a big, running fire 

 might well influence the rate of spread 

 to the point where ground control can 

 be greatly expedited. 



So far, plain water appears to be a 

 satisfactory retardant for use in bomb- 

 ing fires. Wetting agents, foam, and 

 other chemicals have advantages un- 

 der some circumstances and will cer- 

 tainly be used if fire bombing becomes 

 a common practice. 



Large-scale bombing of forest fires 

 is not economically practicable now, 

 if the entire operation must be paid out 

 of funds available for forest protec- 

 tion bombers are costly and their 

 operation is expensive. I suggest, how- 

 ever, that the peacetime functions of 

 the U. S. Air Force might logically 

 include the cooperative use of bombing 

 facilities in defense of our forests 

 against fire. 



So FAR, THE BENEFITS from airplane 

 transportation have resulted from the 

 speed with which aircraft can deliver 

 fire-fighting facilities to the point of 

 need. That same speed in conventional, 

 fixed-wing airplanes restricts their use 

 and, in some phases of the work, re- 

 duces their value. The conventional 

 airplane, because of the speed required 

 to take off and land, requires a long 

 runway or landing strip. Sites of suffi- 

 cient length are scarce in much of our 

 western forest area, and few landing 

 strips are available for receiving fire 

 crews and picking up smoke jumpers 

 for the return to base. The speed of 

 the modern airplane again lowers its 

 value for fire protection when it is as- 

 signed to patrol duty. The observer 

 usually must scan a strip of rapidly 

 changing geography at least 10 miles 

 wide; at the normal flying speed of 

 ordinary planes, he must scan each 

 ravine, ridge, and pocket while moving 

 at the rate of more than 100 miles an 



