Confessions of an Air Show Announcer; From Tankers to Warbirds

The alarm interrupted the smoke jumper presentation "Ladies and gentlemen, please move to the side of the room,

we have an alert." Obediently, we tourists moved to the side

as the jumpers accessed their gear and exited. Once they

were out of the building, we were allowed to go outside to

the edge of the ramp upon which a CASA 212 and a venerable

C-47A (N100Z) in United States Forest Service white and

red awaited with engines already starting to turn over.

Behind me I heard big radial engines, power being pulled

back, coming in to land. The lead aircraft was a Lockheed

Neptune (N4235N), tanker 10, of Black Hills Aviation, followed

by a classic Douglas DC-6B (N999SQ) wearing tanker

number 51 of Sis-Q Flying Service. They were arriving

to load up with retardant so they could attack a fire in

the Bitterroots.

A few days later at the Abbotsford, BC, Airshow, Conair flew

a demo with a trio of Grumman Trackers dropping red/

white/blue water. This was followed by a DC-6B, C-GICD,

tanker 447, with a massive water drop. Little did I know in

August 1989 when I was at the Smokejumper Center of the

USFS Aerial Fire Depot in Missoula, Montana, and later at

Abbotsford, that in two years, I'd be announcing airshows

that would include fire bombers restored to military status.

Fire patrol began almost with the airplane's first flight,

especially in Canada. Early attempts to put out fires from

the air were not real effective, but in 1954, a combination

of federal, state, and local government agencies joined with

the University of California and the great movie pilot Paul

Mantz (1903-1965) in experiments using a TBM Avenger

modified with a bomb bay tank to carry up to 600 gallons

of water. A series of tests showed this could work, and on

1 September 1954, the modified TBM made two successful

drops on a real fire. The USFS began acquiring Avengers in

1956 and converting them for water drops. From 1957 on,

the use of air tankers dropping water or retardant in western

states began in earnest.

As an airshow announcer, first with Planes of Fame and the

Minnesota Wing of the CAF, I worked with warbirds that survived

because they worked for a living. At the end of WWII,

thousands of aircraft were stored in surplus yards across the

United States. The largest "boneyards" were located at

Walnut Ridge, Arkansas; Kingman, Arizona; Clinton,

Oklahoma; and Ontario, California. Most of these aircraft

were chopped up and melted down, but a few found use

in the civilian world licensed in the Limited or Restricted

category as aerial applicators, photo mapping aircraft,

executive transports, cloud seeders, and in the 1950s, fire

bombers. A good number of the B-17s, Catalinas, B-25s,

and A-26s, navigating the skies today or in museum static

displays owe their existence to tanker/sprayer operations.

The B-17G, B-25J, both A-26 Invaders, the TBM, and the

F7F Tigercat in Bob Pond's collection had been tankers. At

CAF shows at Holman and Fleming Fields, I called the PV-2

Harpoon, Fairchild C-82 Packet, Fairchild C-119 Flying

After serving aboard the Coral Sea, General Motors TBM-3E Bu53785 (NL7075C) became tanker 55 with

Reeder Flying Service in Idaho. Restored in Royal Navy colors, it flew with Planes of Fame at FCM. It still

reeked from the chemicals it had carried.

Boxcar, and PBY-6A in the annual Ghost Squadron displays.

At one of the Fleming Field shows, PBY-6A, N7179Y was

loaded with water and made a low pass over the runway

and a water drop.

Some tankers were designed and built for fire bombing. I

called water drops by a Minnesota DNR Canadair CL-215

over runway 18/36 at Anoka one year during Discover

Aviation Days. At an annual fly in at Rush City, Ray Pittman

arranged for the appearance of an amphibious Air Tractor

tanker residents still talk about.

Tanker demos at Oshkosh have featured the Douglas A-26,

Sikorsky CH-54 Skycranes, and in July 2016, the mighty

Martin Mars of Coulson Flying Tankers. The Hawaii Mars,

C-FLYL, was capable of delivering 7200 gallons of water

on a fire. Today, the Hawaii Mars is listed for sale with

Platinum Fighters.

The days of the great piston engine tankers are over. At

Reno in September 2016, I watched one of the last P-2

Neptunes, tanker 06 of Neptune Aviation, operating against

a fire at Susanville, California. It was the end of an era.

Today retired jet airliners, helicopters with "Bambi

Buckets," Air Tractors, and Air National Guard C-130s, are

on the front lines against fires around the world.

I've been asked at airshows about the losses of "vintage"

aircraft used in firebombing and in air racing. Why were

valuable pieces of history being risked? Before the 1950s

when tanking operations began and in the 1960s with the

return of air racing at Reno, very few organizations or individuals

cared about warbirds. Ed Maloney was one of the

few individuals to rescue aircraft that would have rotted

away. The CAF kept examples of World War II aircraft flying

when others saw them as eyesores, wrecks to be scrapped.

True, fire bombing, spraying, aerial survey, and air racing

did include losses. But, without commercial use, these aircraft

might have disappeared entirely. Thanks to civilian

commercial operations, we still get to hear the "songs of

freedom" the great piston engine warbirds sing.

Note: In over three decades of calling shows, I announced each of

these eight in flying displays. Needless to say, there were many other

B-17s, B-25s, A-26s, TBMs, a PV-2, another PBY-6A, and civilian

Canadair CL-215s and Air Tractors. Other tankers I saw in action

fighting fires in MN, Montana, Nevada, and California. Some, like

the Martin Mars and Sky Crane, were demos at airshows.