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Show Forestry Plane To Fight Fires SAN FRANCISCO cr.pi Forest fire fighting went onto a more scientific basis when the United States forest service here received its first $15,000, 450 horsepower fire-fighting plane. It is expected to mark the beginning be-ginning of an entirely new system sys-tem for the conservation of forests for-ests in the United States. While this is the first fire-fighting plane the service has ever owned, nevertheless much of the success in bringing 500 forest fires under early control during one month was due to the use of privately pri-vately owned planes in carrying food, equipment and supervisory personnel to the fire lines. None of these planes, however, had any of the special equipment that the new one has. It was built especially for the service and is the prototype of a whole series to follow. Has 175-Mile Speed The ne green - coated, high-wing high-wing cabir. plane, with first fire service insignia, has a cruising speed of 175 miles an hour with full load of 1,250 pounds. Service ceiling is 22,000 feet and, flying range is more than 700 miles. Wing flaps and brakes are designed de-signed to permit a landing run of 400 feet on emergency areas. The plane is equipped with an adjustable pitch propellor for low flying and has special bomb sights for accuracy in duming food and fire-fighting equipment by parachute para-chute from an installed cargo bin. In experimental aird control woi-k, the siglits will serve to drop water and chemicals on targets to determine the effectiveness of aerial suppression on small fires. |