In the United States, about 20 B 26s were used by a variety of companies over the years as fire fighters with the last being retired in 1990. Some of these aircraft migrated to Air Spray but the company has also been very active in finding and converting airframes for the bombing mission - even some executive aircraft have been so modified.
The retardant tank carries about 800 gallons and the tank's two doors are independent and leak-proof and each side of the tank is divided into compartments so that the retardant can't start sloshing around in flight which would cause trouble.
When the tank's doors are opened by the pilot, vents atop the fuselage pop open to scoop air into the system to force the slurry out in just 1.5 seconds which lets the retardant hit the fire in a concentrated force.
2017 was the 50th anniversary of the business. Air Spray's founder, Don Hamilton had been an aviator since 1943. After leaving the the Royal Canadian Air Force, Don purchased his first aircraft and began flying as a bush pilot in Northern Alberta.
Having experience flying numerous aircraft in various roles, he saw the opportunity to use an old A 26 aircraft to fight forest fires in Alberta. The aircraft was converted to the air tanker role after the installation of a tank to hold the fire retardant in the old bomb bay.
2 of the Air Spray B 26s are in Australia, one made it there in a carefully planned route, but the execution went astray.
The ferry flight from the USA to Australia took around four weeks to fly in various legs across the Pacific Ocean to Brisbane, “We encountered an earthquake in Hawaii, a cyclone in Samoa, a fuel shortage in Pago Pago to help and a diversion to Norfolk Island for fuel too.”
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