“250K per day? Sounds like a lot of money until you figure in the damage caused of a an out of control fire per day.”
However if you are a bureaucrat the cost of the damage from an out of control fire is not applied to his/her budget. A $250K per day charge for the plane can wipe out the bureaucrat’s budget very quickly.
What about the ideas of controlled burns and not putting housing and people in the middle of inflammable areas?
“A $250K per day charge for the plane can wipe out the bureaucrat’s budget very quickly.”
What is really at stake is the big money from large fires. Whole cities spring up near large fires. The Supertanker can be a silver bullet and stop a fire cold. It could easily pay for it’s self by replacing 20 or 30 drops by smaller aircraft. One of the aircraft currently used in fire fighting is a converted crop duster. Almost a joke to watch them work.
As a reference, operating costs for the VC-25 aircraft (747) that serve as Air Force One are pegged at $175,000 per hour. I assume the 747 tanker could perform multiple sorties a day, so by government standards, it’s almost a bargain.
Until one realizes that that 250K/day can turn a multiweek fire response into a couple days of mop up.