Dino?..i have a question..

[Daveroo]

im not sure how else to get aholt of him,so,,Dino if ya see this..thanks..anyone else is ofcourse free to have a looksie at the link,,,its safe..

this company,is looking into (again) turning the surplus Lockheed S3B Viking's into airtankers,before yall tell me it wont work,blah blah blah...it very well could if they would lower the the load from 2000,to 1500 or even a real 1200 gallon load like the S2T is purported to have,the State has restricted the CalFire tankers to 1100max,and a "combat load" (gotta love Joe Hoser Satrapa)of 800,which btw was the normal load of the radial powered S2A tankers.yes it was!!!..(headin off any arguments,and ill direct you to ask Hoser yourself,,as i did)

bottomline,Dino could you l;ook at this document and see if its possible to convert your Viking into the tanker?..only in Calfires currant colors and scheme,if it cant actually be converted without a PTA amount of work or effort,could some one paint it as a calfire tanker,say with the tail number of 89 or whatever works?..then maybe i could just add a retardant dropping file?..i know one is oout there where you have to play with the position of the retardant as it leave the plane...where i dont know.

heres the doc link :.. http://slidegur.com/doc/1073587/s3b-argon---the-associated-aerial-firefighters--aaf-

[Daveroo]

<header class="entry-header" style="color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.375px;">S-3B as an air tanker? (http://fireaviation.com/2015/06/12/s-3b-as-an-air-tanker/)Posted on June 12, 2015 (http://fireaviation.com/2015/06/12/s-3b-as-an-air-tanker/) by Bill Gabbert (http://fireaviation.com/author/jackson8862/)
13 (http://fireaviation.com/2015/06/12/s-3b-as-an-air-tanker/#comments)
</header>http://fireaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/S-3B-air-tanker.jpg (http://fireaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/S-3B-air-tanker.jpg)A design for converting the S-3B into an air tanker, by Argon ST, a subsidiary of The Boeing Company.

The concept of converting the S-3B into an air tanker has been floating around for a while, so let’s explore it a little.
In 1975 the U.S. Navy replaced the S-2 with the jet engine powered S-3A. The S-2 is still being used today by CAL FIRE after the agency replaced the piston engines with turboprops and renamed it the S-2T.
Most of the S-3As, 119 of the 188 that were built between 1974 and 1978, were modified in the mid- to late 1980s with updated avionics, radar, and missile capability, and an updated name — S-3B.
http://fireaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Photo-S-3Bs-Davis-Monthan-AFB.jpg (http://fireaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Photo-S-3Bs-Davis-Monthan-AFB.jpg)S-3Bs at Davis Monthan AFB

Since they were retired in 2009, over 100 S-3Bs have been stored in the desert. According to an engineering analysis by Argon ST, a subsidiary of The Boeing Company, an S-3B converted into an air tanker could carry up to 2,000 gallons of retardant, would have a maximum speed of 450 KIAS (518 mph), a drop speed of 125 to 135 KIAS (144 – 155 mph), with retardant coverage levels from 0.5 to 8. The engineering analysis for tanking the S-3B was sponsored by NASA and is available at no cost to the USFS.
The S-2T used by CAL FIRE has a 1,200-gallon retardant tank and a maximum speed of 235 KIAS (270 mph).
A speedy air tanker with those specifications would make a pretty good initial attack resource. One of our readers suggested that the federal land management agencies could pick up 100 of them and outfit 40 with tanks. Many of us will remember when the U.S. Forest Service had significant initial attack capability from both the ground and the air.
http://fireaviation.com/wp-content/plugins/add-to-any/share_save_120_16.png (https://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Ffireaviation.com%2F201 5%2F06%2F12%2Fs-3b-as-an-air-tanker%2F&title=S-3B%20as%20an%20air%20tanker%3F&description=)

[Dino Cattaneo]

Sorry for the late reply - lately my real-world job does not leave me much time for flight simulations...

S-3 as firefighter would be cool (and it also reminds me that I should release an update for the S-3 which I have been working on)....but reality is that I have no time at the moment for anything but my current project (which is a F-35 update for P3V2).