Years ago, a California airship company almost built a firefighting airship, which would have been a game changer and saved many billions of dollars a year. But they went bankrupt.
Airships have a tremendous amount of lift, and because they can hover, they don’t need to drop it all at once, but can “rain out” a fire. They could also descend a wire guided fire hose, or even a wide, collapsible tube to drop a lot of high expansion fire fighting foam.
The supertanker 747 can carry 19,600 gallons of retardant or water. An airship would make a great complement to it. It would likely be just as fast or faster getting on site as well, as it can refill its tank by setting down on a lake or large open vat. And with engines on either side, it can travel at 40mph.
“An airship would make a great complement to it.”
The fire-generated vertical and horizontal wind shear from a significant fire would toss a gas-filled airship into the (burning) weeds.