March 2015
| Business World
251
it’s a tactically derived airplane that was built
by Lockheed Martin,” he affirms. “It’s the
only next-generation air tanker that’s still
in production and it’s the only next-gen air
tanker that’s designed to fly low and slow in
a tactical role.”
“We’re the only civilian operator of a C-
130H,” he adds. “It’s an extremely desirable
airplane in the military world. Our com-
petitors are flying BA146s and MD-87s,
and those aircrafts are mid-size passenger
jets. They’re designed to get from point A
to point B as fast as possible. They’re not de-
signed to fly lowand slowatmax gross weight
in a treed environment 200 feet above the
ground, whereas the C-130 is.”
Coulson Aircrane further sets itself apart
from the competition with their state-of-
the-art technology. They have built an in-
novative, cutting edge C-130 tanking system
for their own aircraft as well as for other cus-
tomers.
The Coulson RADS-XXL C-130 tank-
ing system is a modular, gravity flow system
that consists of two parts; a permanently in-
stalled “lower hopper” that is low impact to
the airframe and usually installed at a Lock-
heedMartin Authorized Service Center, and
an “upper hopper” that is removable and in-
stalls in less than one hour. When the upper
hopper is removed, the aircraft goes back to
a standard cargo configuration and has no
airframe restrictions. “This system is ideal
for militaries around the world who have
wildfires in their countries and are looking to
supplement existing resources with a cost ef-
fective airtanker by utilizing existing C-130
aircraft and crews,” states Britt.
“We’ve got a brand new tank controller
coming out that we’ll be flying for the 2015
fire season,” Britt says. “Airtankers, especially
some of the new jets, have an inherent prob-
lem with baselining their tanks at, as an ex-
ample, 125 knots forward air speed. In real-
ity, they’re dropping at 145 knots, and that
extra 20 knots can significantly degrade their
drop pattern.”
“Our new system allows our tank controller
to compensate for the speed,” he continues.
“It’s got its own GPS built in, and it takes
the radar altimeter data from the aircraft and
varies the flow rate to make sure we always
get the desired coverage level on the ground
for the ground crews. This not only provides
the best value to the customer, it also eases
