Aero Tech has been promoting the A-10 tanker concept for almost 10 years but the recent grounding of 33 large air tankers by the Forest Service gave new impetus to the proposal and the company prepared a brief for western governors. One of the biggest stumbling blocks appears to be freeing up a couple of A-10s for testing. The brief to the governors notes that dozens of A-10s, in flying condition, have been donated to museums in recent years and there are about 200 in storage in Arizona. Aero Tech claims the cost of converting an A-10 to firefighting duty is about $3 million, which it says is less than the conversion cost of less-effective S-2T aircraft in California. The company says the A-10 would be used primarily as an initial attack tool, designed to jump on a fire in the early stages. It could also put its electronics suite to use for fire reconnaissance.
