TOULOUSE – Deep inside the carcass of a disused turboprop aircraft, engineer Jonathan Beck squeezes between rows of tanks as he demonstrates how his French startup plans to challenge ageing Canadair water-bombers in combatting European wildfires.
From the birthplace of Concorde to the laptops of a retired general in southern France or an architect in Belgium, designs for new or converted water-bombers have gained momentum after nearly 500,000 hectares burned across Europe this year.
A parliamentary panel warned last year that France’s existing fleet of aerial firefighters faced a “major crisis” and called for European alternatives to the rugged water-scooping Canadairs, which have dominated the market for decades.
At first glance, the task looks daunting. A water-scooper is partly a seaplane, the art of which has eroded over the years.
“We will have eight tons of water inside this aircraft,” former Airbus engineer Beck, who heads design at Positive Aviation, told Reuters, pointing to Y-shaped pipes that would draw water from new floats designed to skim over lakes or sea.
