Billings Flying Service CH-47

 Billings Flying Service (BFS) in Billings, Montana, has carved out a righteous niche in the World of Aerial Wild Fire Fighting.  BFS is arguably THE most advanced and equipped company flying former military CH-47 Chinook helicopters. Design work on the workhorse CH-47 began in the 1950's and it entered service in 1962.  A cavalcade of upgrades and variants kept the CH-47 current and relevant even into today's military battle scene.

As older CH-47's get surplused out by the military, various private contractors have converted them for wild land fire fighting duty.  BFS has perhaps the best "full spectrum" approach to operating the venerable CH-47's.  The expertise of BFS is too lengthy to describe here so we encourage our readers to do a deep dive in the BFS website.  

In this article, we'd like to do a very brief discussion of the BFS internal tanking system for the CH-47.  It was a major feat of aeronautical engineering to retrofit a CH-47 with a 2,500 gallon internal tank while keeping the helicopter stable and very much airworthy.

Other wild land aerial fire fighting contractors have simply strapped on a biggie Bambi Bucket and called it good.  BFS created a custome internal tanking system that offers a much more secure performance at low altitudes as well as a precision drop rate unique to the type.

You can learn a WHOLE LOT more about it by watching this most excellent BFS video:
https://vimeo.com/292223253

We grabbed a few screen clips from the above linked video.  Comments are below each clip.

This diagram shows how the internal tank sits pretty much at the CH-47 center of gravity.  Its position allows the helicopter to remain nimble and responsive to flight crew inputs.

Rigorous testing and engineering of the release system was conducted in order to design the best possible way to distribute the CH-47's load of water.

The attached siphon system can refill the 2,500 internal tank in less than a minute.  It's an engineering marvel! The screen clip below shows how the internal tank appears when loaded and secured into the CH-47.  Clip courtesy of BFS: https://billingsflyingservice.com/flight-services/aerial-firefighting/