A deep blue sky stretches overhead as a plane christened “Tanker 60” gleams in the southern Oregon sun at the Medford Air Tanker Base, a hub for aircraft fighting wildfires along the West Coast. Its rounded tail looms over an otherwise empty ramp, emblazoned with its radio call sign: a big, green “60.” Four piston-powered engines, with their propellers synced in near-perfect alignment with one another, look especially sharp. The bulbous orange fire-retardant tank sticks out conspicuously, while its pointy white nose feels decidedly aggressive.
It’s a bit hard to believe at first sight, but this piston-powered Douglas DC-7, owned by Erickson Aero Tanker, was the crown jewel of the airline industry in the 1950s before being converted to fight wildfires — work that jets have increasingly taken over in recent years.
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