Autopia Planes, Trains, Automobiles and the Future of Transportation Little X-Plane Pushes Bottom Edge of the Envelope

By Jason Paur

Flight test programs at Edwards Air Force Base and NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center usually are off-limits to outsiders, but we got a peek at one of its coolest programs, the X-48B, when the Air Force recently threw open the gates for an open house.

The X-48B is the latest in a long line of experimental X-planes, and the joint venture between NASA and Boeing’s Phantom Works is unlike most that came before. The blended wing-body aircraft isn’t some sort of sierra hotel fighter jet, it doesn’t have a pilot on board and it’s not even full-size. Despite being an unmanned scale model, the test pilots who fly it say all the challenges of experimental flight are still there.

“We try to fly very precise data points,” Boeing’s Dan Wells, one of three test pilots flying the X-48B, told Wired.com. “It still requires precision flying; you just don’t have those motion cues. You still feel like you worked hard when you fly it.”

The X-48B comes in for a landing. Photo: NASA

 

Sitting in a cockpit on the ground, Wells says flying the X-48B isn’t much different than flying a real airplane. The 8.5 percent scale plane has a camera in the nose, and the veteran Army test pilot has the same stick, rudder pedals and throttle controls he would use in a normal airplane.

“It’s just that visually all I have is a TV picture,” he said.

The airplane has a 21-foot wingspan and is powered by three 55-pound-thrust gas turbine engines. Wells and his flight-test engineer perform exacting maneuvers with the 500-pound airplane, often making adjustments of less than a degree to the pitch, roll or yaw.

Blended wing-body aircraft combine the efficiency of a flying wing, where the entire fuselage of the aircraft creates lift with small wings to aid stability and control. The result is a bulbous, triangular fuselage — with plenty of room to seat passengers or carry cargo — instead of the tube fuselage design of traditional aircraft.

Pilots and engineers often describe an airplane’s capabilities by referring to the edges of its performance plotted on a graph. These boundaries on the graph define the flight envelope. With the entire aircraft adding to the lift side of the equation, the blended wing-body design provides greater efficiency at high-altitude cruise speeds. But the challenge according to Wells are the airplane’s flying characteristics at the other end of the flight envelope.

“It’s great that it’s more fuel efficient at 35,000 feet,” he said. “But can you land it?”

Airplanes tend to be most challenging to fly at the lower speeds encountered during takeoff and landing. Here an airplane is at risk of stalling, a condition where the smooth flowing air over the lifting surface no longer flows so smoothly. The result is a loss of lift. In order to be safe to fly, an airplane should have good, or at least manageable, stall characteristics allowing a pilot to recover and maintain control. Wells says flying wings typically don’t have good stall characteristics, so the challenge is creating an airplane that will be safe and controllable at low speeds.

To examine the low-speed characteristics, the team is examining the X-48B’s behavior at a high angle of attack similar to how it might fly during takeoff or landing. With more than 70 flights completed so far, the X-48B has demonstrated the design can overcome some of the challenges that have plagued similarly unusual aircraft.

“This platform and our flight control system allow us to go to a much, much higher angle of attack,” Wells says (an alpha of 23 degrees for you aerodynamics geeks). “So far we’ve shown that we have very good low-speed handling qualities and that’s the whole purpose of this program — to show that this design of an airplane will fly in the low-speed environment.”

Next up for the X-48 team is the transition to the X-48C model. The newer design will have two engines that are more efficient, allowing the crew to conduct longer test flights. But don’t hold your breath waiting to see anything bigger. So far there are no plans for a full-size test vehicle. Aviation analysts say before a company like Boeing would be willing to invest the money required for a full-scale version, oil prices would climb into triple digits to assure a sufficient demand for the fuel-efficient airplane.

Until that happens, Boeing and NASA can continue to push the edge of the envelope with a modest investment in the little X-48B.

First and second photos of the X-48B: NASA. All others: Jason Paur/Wired.com.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/10/x-plane/

Supersonic Jet to Fly at Speed of Business

By Jason Paur

One of the more interesting airplane companies making news this week at the National Business Aircraft Association’s annual meeting isn’t actually making airplanes yet. Aerion Corporation is an ambitious group of people who want to produce a supersonic business jet.

Aerion has been around for more than four years and continues to take deposits for the 8- to 12-seat aircraft it says will be capable of flying more than one and a half times faster than the speed of sound. The company has already received more than 50 deposits totaling more than $4 million. But it hasn’t found a manufacturing partner yet to help build the aircraft.

With the Concorde relegated to museums, there isn’t a supersonic aircraft available for anybody outside of the military who feels the need for speed. Currently the fastest business jet, the Cessna Citation X cruises at Mach .92. Aerion says there is a customer base for their Mach 1.6 aircraft that will be dramatically more efficient than other supersonic aircraft because of its unique laminar-flow wing design.

The current economic doldrums have slowed development of the $80 million jet, but Aerion remains optimistic with continued financial backing from investors. The company says it is in talks with aircraft makers in an effort to find a partner to manufacture the supersonic aircraft.

Aerion continues active development of the jet, expecting to certify the airplane by 2015. Recent wind-tunnel tests have bolstered the wing design critical to making the aircraft efficient at speeds above and below the speed of sound.

Current FAA regulations would limit the airplane to flying less than Mach 1.0 over the United States (pesky sonic booms being one of the issues). But Aerion says the jet will be able to cruise as efficiently as current business jets at speeds below the speed of sound when flying in U.S. airpsace. On a transoceanic flight however, pilots could push the throttles forward and cruise at speeds up to Mach 1.6, making the trip from New York to Paris in less than four and a half hours.

Image: Aerion

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/10/supersonic-business-jet-for-those-with-a-need-for-speed/

Oct. 14, 1947: Yeager Machs the Sound Barrier

1947: Capt. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager pilots the rocket-powered Bell X-1 to a speed of Mach 1.07, becoming the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. In breaking the sound barrier, Yeager becomes the fastest man alive — and the legend of the X-Planes begins.

As airplanes flew faster and faster throughout the 1930s, pilots began to experience a number of problems associated with the increased airspeed. Aircraft such as the Lockheed P-38 and Republic P-47 flew just fine at ordinary speeds in level flight. But if pilots put them in a high-speed dive, they began to experience control problems that led to the deaths of several pilots.

The main problem facing these pilots was the aerodynamic condition known as compressibility. Simply stated, at speeds well below the speed of sound, most of the air molecules have time to get out of the way of an aircraft as it approaches, and the density of the air does not change.

However, as the speed of sound is approached, the air molecules can’t get out of the way, and more of them hit the aircraft. The impact compresses the air in front of the aircraft and increases the air density. Eventually shock waves form around the airplane, affecting the lift and drag. These changes were not well-understood and led to the loss of control in several aircraft.

Because the effects of compressibility are directly related to the speed of sound, a ratio is used to describe the speed of an aircraft. The Mach number is the speed at which an object is traveling relative to the speed of sound at a particular temperature. The name is in honor of physicist Ernest Mach, who studied high-speed gas dynamics.

The Bell X-1 was developed to research aerodynamics in the transonic region, or speeds just below and just above the speed of sound. After numerous flights with civilian test pilots, Capt. Yeager of the newly formed U.S. Air Force made his first powered flight in the X-1 on Aug. 29, 1947, high over the Mojave Desert of southern California.

Over the next several weeks, Yeager piloted the X-1, named ‘Glamorous Glennis’ after his wife, on several flights creeping closer and closer to the sound barrier. In his autobiography, Yeager, the legendary test pilot writes about one of the surprises discovered during the experimental test flights: “I was flying at 0.94 Mach at 40,000 feet, experiencing the usual buffeting, when I pulled back on the control wheel, and Christ, nothing happened!” Yeager had experienced one of the control problems associated with transonic flight. “The airplane continued flying with the same attitude and in the same direction.”

The problem Yeager was experiencing was the ineffectiveness of the X-1’s pitch controls, as shock waves essentially created an aerodynamic shadow around the tail. Changes were made to the horizontal tail controls, allowing Yeager to control the airplane’s ability to pitch up and down, and flights continued. This knowledge would lead to the all-flying tail, or stabilator, standard on all supersonic fighters today.

Yeager was nursing two broken ribs on the morning of Oct. 14, after being thrown from his horse on a ride the night before. He boarded the B-29 bomber that was to carry the Bell X-1 to altitude. The plan was to fly to Mach 0.97. But Yeager says the new moving tail boosted his morale, and he wanted to fly faster.

After climbing down into the X-1, which was carried like a bomb in the belly of the B-29, Yeager’s friend and fellow test pilot Jack Ridley handed him a short, sawed-off section of broomstick. Yeager would use it to close the canopy of the X-1, because his broken ribs prevented him from closing the latch normally.

The X-1 was dropped, and the first two chambers of the rocket were ignited to carry the plane to 40,000 feet. Still climbing, Yeager ignited the last two chambers, and as the speed passed Mach 0.96, he says the ride started to smooth out. After watching the needle on the Machmeter fluctuate a bit, it suddenly went off the end of the scale. (In a less-than-optimistic design, the instrument topped out at Mach 1.0.)

People on the ground heard what sounded like distant thunder. It was the first sonic boom ever created by an aircraft. At age 24, Yeager had flown faster than the speed of sound.

The flight was kept secret, and the world wouldn’t know about the first supersonic flight until months later. The X-1 would fly more than a hundred more times, reaching a speed of Mach 1.45.

Subsequent X-1 models would fly more than twice the speed of sound. Later X-Planes would fly even faster, reaching hypersonic speeds where the density of the air wasn’t the only thing to change: They would fly so fast, the chemistry of the air would change.

Capt. Yeager would go on to become Gen. Yeager and the iconic test pilot. He was the first commandant of the Air Force’s test-pilot school and continued commanding fighter squadrons into the 1960s.

Now age 86, Yeager will return this Saturday to the skies over the Mojave desert. He’ll make a now-routine supersonic flyby to kick off Edwards Air Force Base’s air show and open house.

Sources: The X-Planes, X-1 to X-45, by Jay Miller;
Yeager, by Gen. Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos

Photo: Wikipedia

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/10/1014yeager-breaks-mach-1/

Photo Gallery: Let the X-Planes Begin

Airlines ordered to test, disinfect onboard water

EPA hopes to remedy bacteria contamination found in water on planes

WASHINGTON – U.S. government regulators on Tuesday issued final rules requiring airlines to test and disinfect the tap water served to passengers and used in plane lavatories, an attempt to remedy bacteria contamination found in onboard water.

The Environmental Protection Agency rules set out schedules for how frequently airlines must flush and disinfect the water systems on planes and test for coliform bacteria.

Coliform are usually not harmful, but they are considered an indicator of the presence of disease-causing germs.

The schedules vary: Airlines that test water quality frequently do not have to disinfect and flush as often; those that test less often must disinfect and flush more frequently.

The rules apply only to tap water supplied through aircraft water systems, not bottled water.

The EPA determined five years ago that airlines weren’t complying with drinking water regulations. The agency tested water from 327 planes, of which 15 percent tested positive for coliform. The agency said about 20 percent of the water tested didn’t show any amount of chlorine — an indication it had not been treated.

Forty-five domestic airlines have already agreed to monitor their tap water quality and publicly report the results under a settlement with EPA.

The rule released Tuesday gives airlines up to 24 months before they have to comply with the new schedules.

The EPA estimates the cost of the new rules at nearly $7 million a year, or about a penny per ticket.

“This rule is a significant step forward in protecting people’s health when they travel,” said Peter Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “EPA has taken this step to make sure the public has drinking water that meets standards, both in the air and on the ground.”

Officials for the Air Transport Association, which represents major air carriers, had no immediate comment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33194672/ns/travel-news/

SpaceShipOne, Five Years Later

It has been five years since SpaceShipOne screamed its way into the history books as the first privately built and financed manned craft to reach space. While that roar from the ship’s rocket engine has long since dissipated, the aftershocks from its suborbital space shots are still being felt.

Roaring upward over the Mojave, Calif., desert on repeat flights, pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie individually controlled the craft to the suborbital heights – and within the span of a 14-day period. In doing so, on Oct. 4, 2004, the $10 million Ansari X Prize was won – and the vision of non-governmental spaceflight became sharply focused.

Designed by Mojave-based Burt Rutan – the lead out-of-the-box thinker of Scaled Composites and his team – and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the barrier-breaking vehicle earned its stripes.

Its victory was hailed by the banner: “SpaceShipOne, Government Zero.”

Today, at the Mojave Air and Space Port all appears in readiness for the combined test flights of WhiteKnightTwo and the sleek two-pilot, six-person SpaceShipTwo – the world’s first passenger-carrying suborbital spaceliner. This outing is backed by British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic company. Like SpaceShipOne, the new SpaceShipTwo is designed to be carried to a high altitude by a mothership aircraft where it can launch on suborbital trips.

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Above the fold

Burt Rutan reflects on the wake left by the pioneering SpaceShipOne flights, the winning of the Ansari X Prize, and a glimpse at the road ahead.

“Our big milestone of 2004 occurred on June 21, the date of the first non-government manned spaceflight. The X Prize flights were an opportunity for our sponsor and our employees to get a ‘well-done bonus’ and to show that our June accomplishment was not a lucky fluke…that it really is feasible for low-cost space access to be offered to the public,” Rutan explained.

Rutan proudly spotlights a “Google Trends” search that also shows the importance of their first manned spaceflight. The Newsworthy Record , that is the number of world newspapers that carried the story above the fold, showed that the June 21st story was the second largest news event of 2004 – the first being the capture of Saddam Hussein. Three of the five manned space flights of 2004 were flown from Mojave, California.

“SpaceShipOne was my 39th manned aircraft type to be flight tested and was clearly the most significant,” Rutan said. “It was my last design…an opportunity to hand over the reins to the very talented young designers at Scaled.”

Rutan said that he has continued to design new concepts as Chief Technology Officer and Chairman Emeritus of Scaled Composites.

“I may design a future aircraft or two, but because of the rewarding experience of SpaceShipOne for all my employees, I personally feel that my aircraft development career is complete,” Rutan told SPACE.com.

Historic, game changing

A witness to all three of the SpaceShipOne flights was Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic. “Those breathtaking X Prize flights were worthy of every cliche in the book…historic, game changing…all in all, the right stuff!”

When SpaceShipOne pilot Brian Binnie shot skyward on the second of back-to-back suborbital treks to snag the X Prize purse, Whitehorn considered that historic day as “one which will change the face of the space industry forever.”

And as the wispy contrail from that prize-winning run turned invisible, there were a host of judgments remaining, Whitehorn told SPACE.com. “Big decisions had to follow…such as whether to rebuild SpaceShipOne as a commercial vehicle, or take the braver and more costly decision to build a truly capable integrated space launch system,” he said.

Fast forward to the present: The WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo is viewed as that space launch system. The combo of flight hardware not only gives space tourists what they wanted, but also supports human-in-the-loop science and launching satellites as well, Whitehorn said.

“It is now five years on and where are we? Flying the launch vehicle…firing the rocket motor…on the cusp of unveiling the finished SpaceShipTwo and of course watching a runway unfold in the New Mexico desert,” Whitehorn added, pointing to the development of Spaceport America – home base for Virgin Galactic commercial operations.

“Hundreds of Virgin Galactic, Scaled and Spaceport America people are working towards a true industrial revolution in space,” Whitehorn concluded. “I, for one, can’t wait, but will never forget the fact that the Ansari X prize was a real catalyst for these events.”

Quiet before the storm

“Right now is the quiet before the storm,” said Rick Tumlinson, a leader in the NewSpace movement and co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation. He points to a trio of past events that has brought about the emerging space squall.

“The winning of the X Prize, the takeover of the Mir space station by private investors and the flight of Dennis Tito to the space station were the three shots that convinced investors that there was a market for commercial human spaceflight, a way to capitalize on it in the near term…and people willing to put money into the idea,” Tumlinson said.

Comparing it to the moment before the flag is dropped on a race track, “the teams are building their cars and rolling them out to the starting line,” Tumlinson said.

The Tumlinson timeline: Within the next few months the first companies will begin flights and within two years the first paying customers will be flying. Within three years the first commercial facilities will be overhead and within five years you will be able to fly commercially to orbit on a private spaceship.

“NewSpace has been through some major shakeouts, with only a few of the many firms surviving that were around when the X Prize was won. In fact,
Scaled Composites may be the only one of the registered competitors that did survive,” Tumlinson said.

“It is important to maintain perspective. Some would have us believe that the X Prize all by itself signaled the NewSpace revolution. It did not,” he added. “There were a lot of people working on a lot of important projects for at least a decade before it was won, and by itself it would not have been anything more than a news blip.”

Tumlinson said that beyond Scaled/Virgin Galactic, none of the other surviving NewSpace firms that really have a chance to succeed competed for the X Prize at all. “XCOR and Armadillo Aerospace refused to participate, and the billionaire guys like Bezos, Bigelow and Musk are doing their own thing completely,” he added.

New set of investors

Peter Diamandis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the X Prize Foundation has a different take on the spark stemming from the X Prize.

“Since the Ansari X Prize was won in 2004, over $1 billion in capital has been invested into the personal spaceflight industry,” Diamandis said. “Of the 26 teams from seven nations that competed, I would guess that about a quarter of them remain viable and are pushing toward commercial operations.”

In looking back over the past five years, Diamandis said that one of the most important results of the Ansari X Prize involves credentialing this slice of the industry as real, as well as stimulating this market sector.

“People now know and believe that they can buy a private ticket to space without having to be a government employee,” Diamandis noted. “Other benefits include helping to clarify the regulatory regime and bringing a new set of investors and sponsors to fund the entrepreneurs who have dedicated their lives to this industry sector.”

Claims, rhetoric, and drama

While SpaceShipOne’s snaring of the X Prize showcased the possible, as well as what was attainable, hubris shouldn’t be the propellant for pushing forward.

That cautionary view is espoused by David Livingston, the host of “The Space Show” – a popular talk radio and streaming Internet program. On one hand, SpaceShipOne’s victory started opening a tightly closed door for investment which is opening even wider today.

“That said, accessing space is not easy or dirt cheap – be it suborbital, orbital, or actually going someplace rather than just orbiting Earth,” Livingston said. “While I believe the entrepreneurs and businessmen and women know how to kick the door wide open and establish needed space economic infrastructure to develop this new industry, I have my doubts about policy makers, our elected officials, and those motivated to hold on to old agendas that won’t work for the new space economy.”

Livingston sees an increase in the claims and rhetoric by enthusiasts, dreamers, advocates, and those wanting to be very much a part of a truly space-faring world.

“The risk here is that as the extremes in the claims, rhetoric, and drama get exposed to the light of the day as being nothing more than what they are, they fuel the arguments and unenlightened ways of those in power – or in influential positions – and they add to the risks of sidetracking or slowing down commercial space development,” Livingston asserted.

The bottom line is that real space development is essential for our future, Livingston said. “Let’s keep it real so we can achieve our goals and improve our world.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,560152,00.html

High Tech Airships Making a Comeback

Airships are making a comeback with the US military, which could be good news for civilian applications. The military has the deep pockets for research and development, but then, once these ideas are worked out, civilian applications often follow along. So it is for those reasons, and not military boosterism, that we are excited to see that the US Army is planning to deploy an unmanned airship called the LEMV which can spend up to 3 weeks at an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 m) with a 2,500 pound (1,134 kg) payload of surveilance equipment by the middle of 2011.

LEMV (Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle) is a hybrid airship which gets most, but not all of its lift from the buoyant volume of the vehicle. 20% of the lift, however, comes from the aerodynamic shape of the craft and from its thrusters. The LEMV is capable of a much longer period of continuous operation than other contemporary unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

The attached video shows trial flights of the Lockheed Martin P-791 prototype which, at 125 feet (38 m) long, was about half the size of the proposed LEMV. The initial Army deployment of the LEMV is to be in Afghanistan. But research applications and disaster relief are just two of the more beneficial uses this technology could be used for in the near future.

http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/2958

Airlines Pledging to Cut Emissions by 50%

At the UN climate talks today in New York, an agreement between airlines, airports and aircraft companies to slash emissions by 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 will be presented.  If the UN accepts the proposal, it will be added to the Copenhagen agenda.

This would be significant because not only is the aviation industry responsible for two percent of yearly global emissions, but those emissions weren’t part of the Kyoto Protocol.  Adding a commitment like this to whatever agreement comes out of Copenhagen will mean a substantial improvement over Kyoto.

The International Air Travel Association is also promising that all industry growth will be carbon neutral by 2020.

The one downside of this pledge by the aviation industry is that it will undoubtedly raise fares for travelers, at least initially, while new technologies are being developed.

http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/2954

New Airbus A30x Planes Look Straight Out of Coruscant Skies

While Boeing is struggling to get the Dreamliner into the skies, Airbus is already planning their A30X next generation aircraft, which include really cool stuff like forward swept wings, u-tails, and lower-placement engines. Their five-decker A380 replacement is even crazier.

These won’t come for another 15 years, but they represent a significant change in philosophy from current models, including that Sonic Cruiser model that looks—in technical terms—absofrikkinlutely damn cool. [Airliners via Flight Global]

http://gizmodo.com/5364160/new-airbus-a30x-planes-look-straight-out-of-coruscant-skies

Students Send Model Airplane to 7,000 Feet

On the morning of September 11th, a small group of Stanford Aeronautics and Astronautics students set up their class project at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. The gear consisted of a small table, a couple of MacBooks and two battery-powered model airplanes. The goal: fly the autonomous balsawood and foam aircraft as high as possible.

One of the team, Zouhair Maboubi, launched the first plane, throwing it into the air much like you or I would throw a paper-dart, and it behaved just the same, crashing to the ground a few seconds after launch. The second plane was more successful, and after take-off flew to 2,177 meters, or 7,142 feet, before the team lost contact.

Because the aircraft was autonomous, the flight didn’t end there. The plane went immediately into landing mode and made it safely back to land, and this turned out to be the trip that set an (unofficial) world record for autonomous craft under 5 kilos in weight. A third sortie saw similar altitudes, but before the plane could climb higher it flew too close to the edge of the allotted airspace — this was on NASA’s ground at Edwards Air Force Base, remember.

For the final attempt, the plane was sent soaring from a mile to the north to buy more climbing time before the strengthening winds again took the craft too far south. The plane, named Blue Panther, made it to 2,490 meters, or 8169 feet, but the winds finally won and blew it well off course to the East, where Blue Panther sent itself spiraling to Earth at 78 mph when it engaged “flight termination” mode. The flight was the highest, but because of the crash landing it doesn’t count for the record.

The students had managed to put these planes, very successfully, into the air where they pretty much looked after themselves, and to do it in just a year, from drawing board to sky. More surprisingly, the models cost just $500 each. Not pocket money, but the sort of success-to-cash ratio that is certainly to be attracting the military. Especially as the tests took place in its backyard.

(Follow link for Video) – http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/students-send-model-airplane-to-7000-feet/

747: World’s Biggest Fire Extinguisher Douses L.A. County

The deadly fires that have blackened more than 105,000 acres around Los Angeles prompted authorities to call in the world’s largest fire extinguisher — a Boeing 747 that can drop 20,000 gallons of retardant over a swath of land three miles long.

The plane made its first-ever drop in the continental United States when fire officials summoned it to the Oak Glen fire east of Los Angeles mid day on Monday. After the successful first drop, the Supertanker was called back into action Monday evening where it made further drops on the massive Station fire north of the city which grew to more than 164 square miles and threatened 10,000 homes. Nearly 2,600 firefighters from as far away as Montana are throwing everything they have at the blaze, and on Monday they called in the biggest tool in their inventory.

Supertanker, a 747-100 modified by Evergreen Aviation of Oregon, can deliver more than 20,000 gallons of fire retardant with considerable accuracy using its unique pressurized delivery system. Although Supertanker can’t snake through canyons like smaller aircraft, nothing can touch its payload or its ability to perform multiple controlled drops during a single flight. The Grumman S-2, a dedicated workhorse of California’s airtanker fleet, carries 1,200 gallons. That’s a thimbleful compared to the Supertanker.

“This aircraft can lay down a three-mile-long, football field-wide swath of retardant if needed,” Evergreen’s Rick Campfield told Wired.com. “There’s no close second.”

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/evergreen-supertanker/