Aircraft reference
C-FLXT
Lockheed L-188 Electra airtanker · Air Spray
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Aeroprints.com · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Identity
- Mission
- Air tankers
- Registration
- C-FLXT
- Mode-S address
- C01F76
- ICAO type
- L188
- Model
- Lockheed L-188 Electra airtanker
- Manufacturer
- Lockheed
- Operator
- Air Spray
- Country of registration
- Canada
- Home base
- Red Deer · Canada
- Call sign
- Tanker 481
About the Lockheed L-188 Electra
Land-based air tanker
It loads water or retardant on the ground and attacks from a runway base. It can knock down flames with water or lay a retardant line ahead of the fire to slow its spread and support crews on the ground.
What this type can do
The four-engine L-188 Electra carries a large retardant load at high transit speed. Buffalo Airways’ converted tankers reload on the ground and lay long lines for sustained attack, complementing smaller initial-attack aircraft and amphibious scoopers.
This describes the type’s usual firefighting capability; it does not prove what this aircraft is carrying or doing now.
The Lockheed L-188 Electra is an American turboprop airliner built by Lockheed. First flown in 1957, it was the first large turboprop airliner built in the United States. With its fairly high power-to-weight ratio, huge propellers and very short wings resulting in the majority of the wingspan being enveloped in propwash, large Fowler flaps which significantly increased effective wing area when extended, and four-engined design, the airplane had airfield performance capabilities unmatched by many jet transport aircraft even today—particularly on short runways and high altitude airfields. Initial sales were good, but after two fatal crashes that led to expensive modifications to fix a design defect, no more were ordered. Jet airliners soon supplanted turboprops for many purposes, and many Electras were modified as freighters. Some Electras are still being used in various roles into the 21st century. The airframe was also used as the basis for the Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft.
ICAO type · L188Flight history
Every sortie this server has recorded, reconstructed from the positions the volunteer ADS-B network heard. Select a row to isolate it on the map.
Photographs
Freely licensed images are stored with this project; the rest are shown from the site that publishes them.
Aeroprints.com · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Elwin Wagner · All rights reserved · Planespotters.net
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