Page 4 - Volume 11 Number 4

King Airs Guide Airtankers in Wildland
Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft – including Beechcraft King Air 90 and 200 aircraft – are critical tools in protecting lives, property and valuable natural and cultural resources from wildfires. Annually there are an average of 71,000 fires, which typically burn almost 7 million acres of private, state and federal land in the United States. Firefighters rely on aviation resources to deliver equipment and supplies; transport firefighters; deploy smokejumpers and rappellers to a fire; provide reconnaissance of new fires, fire locations and fire behavior; drop fire retardant or water to slow down a fire so firefighters can contain it, and ignite prescribed fires, which can help prevent the buildup of flammable vegetation that feeds extreme fires.
2 • KING AIR MAGAZINE APRIL 2017