Museum of Flight and Aerial Fire Fighting
Greybull, Wyoming, USA
On July 18th, 2002, a WW-II PB-4Y being flown under contract with the US Forest Service, was fighting the Big Elk fire near Lyon, Colorado. As the four-engine tanker, loaded with over 2,000 pounds of fire retardant, rolled into a smooth 20-degree angle of bank for a low drop, observers saw the left wing separate just inboard of the number two engine. This crash of tanker 123, and the crash of a C-130 firefighter a month earlier, signaled a sad end to the use of older military aircraft for firefighting.
Employing aircraft to fight fires began early on. Much like flying at the beginning of WW-I, the first use of planes to fight fires was for spotting and target identification. The first attempts at actually fighting the fires from the air were not very successful. By the 1930’s, advances were starting to be made but this development was curtailed by the advent of WW-II. After the war, several factors combined to revive interest in aerial firefighting. First of all, the American West, where forest fires are a natural event, was becoming more and more populated. Fires that had previously just burned out naturally were now encroaching on civilization. The second part of the equation was that there were many surplus aircraft available from the war, including large aircraft. By the 1950’s there were many war surplus aircraft fighting fires under contract to the Federal Government and Greybull, Wyoming became one of the centers of operations for aerial firefighting. Hawkins and Powers Aviation, a firefighting and military repair facility had a large operation there, with a variety of aircraft. As the business grew, they started parking some planes next to the fence at the edge of the airport for people to see. This eventually developed into The Museum of Flight and Aerial Fire Fighting, the subject of our visit.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT AND AERIAL FIREFIGHTING
The museum is small and is obviously looking for an identity, and perhaps a permanent building. Nevertheless, it is most certainly interesting, and worth a visit. The museum entrance is actually located in a rest stop on Wyoming Highway 14-16-20, making for easy parking. We flew in, and it was a short walk from the transient ramp to the museum. Although there are a lot of vintage planes on the field, there are only about a dozen on public display. The planes sit alongside a fence next to the rest-stop, so if the museum is not open, they are still in view. You enter through a trailer-like building which serves as an office, gift shop and display area with a small, but quite interesting, collection of memorabilia. After a quick trip through this building, we headed out the back door. All the planes are in the open air, but they each have a plaque with some general information about the plane and all are in more or less restored condition. Several are open to climb inside, my favorite part of any museum.
PB4Y-2
This PB4Y-2, tanker 127, is typical of the type of plane that was rescued from the scrap heap after WW-II and is a sister ship to 123, the one that crashed in 2002. The PB4Y-2 was the Navy version of the venerable Consolidated B-24. The Navy version, designated the ‘Privateer’, had a number of differences from the Air Force bomber. The Navy plane was longer, as there was a flight engineer station- the extra crew member being needed on the long-range missions, and there was just one vertical stabilizer. The Pratt and Whitney R-1830 engines were turbocharged on the B-24, but Navy missions tended to be at low level, so turbochargers were not installed. This saved weight and improved low-altitude performance which, combined with the extra length, made the Navy version ideal for conversion to firefighting. Modifications for the civilian fire-fighting version included replacing the turret nose of the PB4Y-2 with a modified B-24 nose for better visibility on fire runs. The bomb bay was given a bulge and enlarged to accommodate tanks for fire retardant. Hawkins and Powers used these planes to fight fires but also as airborne command posts. Modifying planes like this to serve as fire bombers was a big task but it was a way for them to earn their keep, provide a public service, and be preserved.
The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was an improved version of the C-82 Packet of WW-II. It first flew in 1947 and quickly became a transportation work horse for the military. Over 1000 were built between 1949 and 1955, serving with the active military and the reserves. The C-119 was used for various missions besides transport including; gunships, electronic countermeasures (ECW), air drops, and even weather balloon recovery. With two powerful Pratt & Whitney 4350 engines, the C-119 was also popular as a civilian plane and one of its post-military roles was as a firefighter. The C-119 displayed in the museum was purchased from the Royal Canadian Air Force and still carries the Canadian paint scheme. The 24 Flying Boxcars flown by the RCAF had numerous uses, including landing on ice in the Arctic. This particular C-119 has the “jet-pack” modification with a Westinghouse J-34 turbojet mounted on top. Like the Navy P-2, the jet engine was fueled from the regular avgas tanks. Although purchased with the intention of being an aerial firefighter, this C-119 was never converted. While still flying, it was used by Hawkins and Powers for transport, spraying, and in movies. It eventually made its way over to the fence and became part of the museum.
R-2600 ENGINE COB
As I’ve said in other posts, I like it when museums display items that have not yet been restored. This R-2600 “engine” might be a bit minimalist- but it does give a rare look at the core, or cob, of a radial engine. There are a number of items like this to discover on display while walking around the planes.
If you visit Greybull, you will see hundreds of older planes like these, mostly military surplus, all over the airport. They are privately owned and are not accessible to the public but they can be seen quite well from various locations around the field. This shot was taken taxing out to runway 16. The museum occasionally adds to its collection from these planes and they are currently working on adding a Boeing KC-97 and a Fairchild F-27.
It’s always fun to have dual objectives when travelling, and the occasion of this museum visit was a ‘bucket-list’ event. A few years ago, I purchased wall maps of the US and the world, got out my log book, and spent a couple of fun days sticking pins into all the airports I have flown into; all nicely color coded for airline, Navy, corporate and private flying. Counting the pin locations, I came up with 37 countries and 45 states. The 45 states stood out- which five were missing? Alaska and Hawaii weren’t surprising and the other three were Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. Not long after that I had a Gulfstream 450 trip to Anchorage. Cross off Alaska, four left. Then my youngest son and his fiancé announced that their wedding would be in Big Sky Montana. As soon as my oldest son mentioned that he was going to fly his Bonanza to the wedding, I started hatching plans. A quick flight planning session showed that Montana-Wyoming- South Dakota and back was a realistic one day-trip (we hadn’t even gotten spousal approval for one day. An overnight was definitely out of the question!). The next issue, of course, was where would we make our stops, and could we include an aviation museum? It turned out that there were several possibilities, but The Museum of Flight and Aerial Firefighting in Wyoming was the most practical. It turned out to be an excellent choice. And the Bonanza performed great- even departing Rapid City, SD with the afternoon temperature above 90 degrees and a density altitude of 8,000’. The flight back to Bozeman Montana included a climb to 13,000 over a ridge line and then a dive into the airport, sneaking in between two thunder storms. Several wedding guests arrived the next day, as their airline flights hadn’t made it into Bozeman. Overall, a very satisfying day of flying, which included a very interesting aviation museum.
P-2V Neptune- and author’s sons AJ and Eric
The Lockheed P-2V Neptune was designed during WW-II as a long-range bomber, with two Wright R-3350 radials. Early in the 1950s, P-2s were also fitted with two J-34 jet engines. The jet engines were used to assist for heavy take-offs and could be started in flight if one of the radials failed. I caught a hop home in a P-2 during flight school and the crew alternated using the left and right jet to increase the cruise speed. As mentioned earlier about the jet engine on the C-119, the P-2 jets used avgas. Before the P-3 (a plane that has also been used for fire-fighting) entered service in the early 60’s, the Neptune was the primary anti-submarine hunter for the US Navy. Besides ASW (Anti-submarine warfare), the P-2 was used in a variety of roles including as gunships during the Vietnam war, arctic operations and covert missions with the CIA. Lockheed built 843 P-2s between 1945 and 1963. The P-2V Neptune displayed in the museum was modified by Hawkins and Powers to carry 2,300 gallons of retardant and it worked for many years as a fire bomber. It is currently under restoration.
P-2 Photo Courtesy of the Museum of Flight and Aerial Fire Fighting
The entrance to the museum is through a small building that houses a gift shop and some displays. Although it is not a large area, there is a lot of information available and it is well presented. There are several vintage instrument panels to see close-up and a lot of photos of firefighting. We completed our visit browsing the exhibits and learning a lot about this interesting niche area of aviation history.
INSTRUMENT PANEL FROM A CESSNA AT-17 BOBCAT
This C-97, although not yet part of the museum collection, is easily visible to visitors. Boeing developed the C-97 from the B-29 to be a large troop transport. As a KC-97, its mission was aerial refueling, and the majority of the over 800 aircraft built were for that role. Its main purpose was to re-fuel the B-47 strategic bomber and hence it had two complete fuel systems, one for avgas and one for jet fuel. Although its size and power made it an excellent tanker, it was much slower than the bombers it was refueling. By the end of the 1950s, it was being replaced by the KC-135, a 707 variant. The size of the KC-97 made it a valuable fire-fighter; it is the largest vintage plane ever used for firefighting, holding 3000 gallons of retardant. Tanker 97 was operated by Hawkins and Powers until about 2004.
Aerial photos courtesy of the Museum of Flight and Aerial Fire Fighting
PLANNING YOUR VISIT
The museum is open 9-5 Monday through Saturday and closed on some holidays. If you are making a specific trip to see the museum, I would call ahead to confirm that they are open: (307) 765 2100. Admission is by donation, with $3 suggested.
When you visit, be sure to mention this blog!
FLYING IN
South Big Horn Airport, KGEY, has a 7,003’ paved runway (16/34) at 3942’ elevation. The field is uncontrolled and it has RNAV and NDB approaches. Fuel is available 24 hours from a serve yourself pump. We self-parked on the ramp and fueled up. It is a short walk through a gate in the airport fence to the museum entrance. We were there about two hours and saw no other traffic. The only other plane on the ramp was a C-119, which added to the ambiance.
TRANSIENT RAMP AT SOUTH BIG HORN COUNTY AIRPORT, KGEY
LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
Our visit to Greybull was solely to see the museum, so we didn’t explore the area. The chamber of commerce website points out that Greybull is half-way between Yellowstone and the Black Hills/Mount Rushmore area. As those two destinations are often combined in one vacation, the museum is a natural addition to a trip to this area. We spent a day at Yellowstone, an amazing experience, and we flew past Mount Rushmore on our departure from Rapid City. The chamber website also lists a variety of activities commonly found in the Northwest; hunting, fishing, caving, natural history museums as well as rodeos and winter sports.
MUSEUM WEBSITE
FURTHER READING
Aerial Firefighting by Wolfgang Jendsch is a veritable encyclopedia of aerial firefighting with excellent color photos of just about every plane and helicopter used in the business. For a first-hand account of aerial firefighting try Fire Bomber into Hell by Linc W. Alexander.
UP NEXT
A visit to New Zealand and the Omaka Aviation Heritage Center
MUSEUMS ARE WHERE YOU FIND THEM
This segment is dedicated to finding interesting aviation artifacts that are in public view- but not in an aviation museum. If you see one send a photo!
The Museum of the Rockies, in Bozeman Montana is a large and interesting place to visit, with a wide variety of displays on various topics, such as; dinosaurs, Yellowstone Park, local farming history, a planetarium and various travelling exhibits (Julius Caesar, when we were there). It is also a place where you can find a little aviation history. The Paugh History Hall is a very well-done glimpse into life in Montana during the first half of the 20th Century. A number of exhibits such as a 1930’s gas station, several wagons and buggies and a variety of interesting local artifacts remind us how different life was in this rural area, not that long ago. Ranching and farming were the main industries in the area and, as was true of all of the West, these were wide open spaces. Getting around, even on one’s own property, could be a daunting task, so it is not surprise that aviation played a big part in ranching life. Hanging from the ceiling is a Pietenpol Sky Camper. This was a mail order airplane designed to be simple to build and inexpensive to operate. Although a variety of engines were installed in Pietenpols, the ubiquitous Ford Model T and later Model A engines were the most popular. The example in The Museum of the Rockies was built by brothers Ben and Tom Helmerichs in their workshop in Ryegate, Montana. When the weather turned cold, construction was moved to the kitchen, with Ben’s wife, Sylvia, helping out with sewing of the fabric wings and fuselage. For more information, visit the Museum website: https://museumoftherockies.org
Issue 3, Copyright 2019 Unless otherwise noted, all photos by the author