Fire Tankers Part 1 Photo CD Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

Aero Research has released their third photo reference CD, this covering a variety of fire tankers or 'borate bombers'. These are mostly WWII aircraft that have been converted from droping bombs to droping a special fire retardant.

Once again I used my image browser to scan through the aircraft on the disc and I was quite impressed with the selection of aircraft. In this release, they have provided at least one example of typical fire tankers used in North America as well as the spotter aircraft that direct the tankers' attack patterns..

As with the first release, many of these images are provided at 6000 pixels wide. All of the photos are color and all are out of various collections. Some were taken while the aircraft were in service. Some of the photos were 'stretched' to reach 6000 pixels wide though they look nice at 2000.

So what kind of aircraft will you find on the disc?

• A-26 Intruder
• AF-2 Guardian
• AJ Savage
• B-17 Flying Fortress
• B-18 Bolo
• B-25 Mitchell
• C-119 Flying Boxcar
• C-130 Hercules
• CL-215
• DC-4
• DC-6
• DC-7
• F-15 Reporter
• F7F Tigercat
• HH-43 Huskie
• JRM Mars
• O-2 Skymaster
• OV-10 Bronco
• P-2 Neptune
• P-3 Orion
• PB4Y Privateer
• PBY Catalina
• PV-2 Harpoon
• S-2 Tracker
• S-55 (H-19)
• S-64 (H-54)
• T-28 Trojan
• TBM Avenger

For the modeler, you'll see lots of good details and color information for tackling that next tanker conversion project.

According to the publisher, future subjects include: USN/USMC A-4 Skyhawks, USAF F-4 Phantoms, and Reno Unlimiteds 1964-1974. Each title will be released in two-month intervals.

This is a nice selection of imagery that you won't find available in such clarity and size. This title is recommended!

You can purchase this reference or any of their other photo CDs directly from their website www.aeroresearchcds.com or via email AeroResearch@Charter.net.

My sincere thanks to Aero Research for this review sample!