I would think airspeed would be more of an issue. I mean, a 747 can obviously
carry *tons* of water, but how useful is that if your minimum dispersion (due
to your 250+ KIAS minimum safe airspeed) spreads that water along a *5 mile*
track?


BUFDRVR

That is true. And often you want to drop retardant in fairly close proximity
to those people on the firelines, with with a 747, it will be such a deluge,
that you would have to get everyone pretty far away I would think.

You can get a lot lower with the current tankers and lay retardant more
precisely. . But I guess if you need a lot of it laided down quickly and
precision isnt a huge issue, the 747 project would probably have a role


Ron
Tanker 65, C-54E (DC-4)
Silver City Tanker Base