Comment on Has Australia considered sharing a firefighting aircraft fleet with a country in the northern Hemisphere such as Canada?

Chef_Boyargee@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

• saltesc@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The Australians have a 737 that gets across the Pacific easily.

  They were in California last season youtu.be/e6VB6FiJowE

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  • Chef_Boyargee@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Huh, well today I learned. Thanks!

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• supersquirrel@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  For the helicopters you can put them on cargo ships and then it is cheap as heck.

  For the fixed wing aircraft, I don’t know is two cross hemisphere flights a year really more carbon footprint than two identical fleets of highly expensive materially intensive aircraft?

  I don’t know… maybe but I kind of doubt it since if I wanted to buy an airplane it would be much cheaper to buy it from the otherside of the world premade than attempt to build it myself… so?

  I think it is an interesting question to ponder is what I am saying.

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  • Chef_Boyargee@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I didn’t even think of the helicopters, but yes, that transport is relatively easy. My experience is tangentially related to the fixed wing jet tankers.

    I think that firefighting activity stresses airframes more than usual as well, so I was also estimating from that maintenance side.

    I figure that it could be done, generally, but timelines would probably be tight and costs could escalate quickly, both financially and environmentally.

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  • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    How long does a cargo ship take to get between Australia and Europe or the North American west coast? I imagine it’d be a few weeks at least to LA, and longer to, say, Piraeus or Marseille via the Suez Canal, during which you hope neither side needs those helicopters.

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    • supersquirrel@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Sure but that doesn’t seem like a dealbreaker, definitely a drawback though.

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