Classic Delta gets pulled apart

Air Classics, Jul 2003

Vintage Douglas airliner prepared for fire season

Readers of this magazine are well-aware of the trouble surrounding the American fleet of fire bombers following the well-publicized structural failures of a C-130A Hercules and PB4Y-2 Privateer last year. Since then, the entire aerial fire was grounded and numerous inspections were undertaken on the diverse fleet which found a number of wing cracks and other flaws. Most of these have been rectified but the Hercules and Privateer will not be back on Department of Forestry or Bureau of Land Management contracts. However, there is a slight chance that a couple of the Privateers may be operated on individual state contracts since the aerial disintegration of Tanker 123 may have been a problem with that airframe alone.

Lugging 3000 gallons of retardant, the Douglas DC-7 is a fast and rugged fire bomber - when operated correctly. One of the most successful is Tanker 33 operated by T&G Aviation out of Chandler Memorial Airport in Arizona. A couple of years ago, owner Woody Grantham got the idea to return the fire bomber to its original Delta Airlines paint scheme. N4887C emerged gleaming in its new colors from the hangar but, surprise of surprises, the current Delta Airlines did not like what they were seeing. After a brief period of time, the Delta titles were removed but the rest of the classic scheme, including the crown on vertical tail, has remained the same.

Because of safety considerations, the outer wing panels, retardant tank, etc., were removed for inspection when the aircraft was photographed at Chandler on 29 March. A thorough inspection has shown that the airliner is in good shape and should be operational for several years to come - although the powers to be want to replace the entire heavy fixed-wing fleet with either a new aircraft or new-build Sikorsky S-64 Skycranes which could happen but at a phenomenal cost.