New Life: How A Retired Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 Will Fight Dangerous Wildfires

The aircraft will now serve a new purpose.

On Thursday, British Columbia-based aerial firefighting company Coulson Aviation excitedly announced the arrival of its first Boeing 737-700 aircraft, which will be converted into a firefighting tanker. The aircraft will be the first of up to ten to join the fleet, all of which will be converted into the world’s highest-capacity large air tankers (LATs).

The organization, which has been fighting fires in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Chile for years, has maintained an extensive fleet of converted tanker aircraft. Coulson Aviation also has a long-time relationship with US low-cost airline Southwest, which has supplied the company with older-generation 737-300s to be converted into aerial tankers.

Photo: Coulson Aviation

Coulson Aviation specializes in operating converted tankers for aerial firefighting and maintains a combination of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. The company also assists in several non-firefighting-related activities, such as helicopter logging, power-line construction, and heavy lift operations.

A new opportunity

The new converted 737-700 will offer unparalleled firefighting capabilities for Coulson Aviation. The aircraft, which has been dubbed the Next Generation Fireliner by the organization, is set to raise the bar for aerial firefighters worldwide, offering an increased payload of 5,000 gallons (19,000 liters).

The aircraft will also feature a significantly lower fuel burn than previous generation aircraft, making it the most efficient converted tanker to enter service with Coulson to date. The plane can arrive at fires faster, and deploy twice the volume of fluids (either water or anti-fire chemicals) of any competing aerial tanker.

The organization says that the new fireliner will significantly increase the success of initial attack missions, those which target early stage fires and help make sure that they remain small. In 2023, fires led to the emission of 2.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide globally, contributing to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths due to air pollution.

Coulson contends that these large aircraft will be an important tool to help extinguish fires while they are still small, preventing them from turning into deadlier megafires that cause serious danger to families and property. According to the company, this latest addition to the fleet continues to demonstrate its commitment to protecting and diminishing the harm caused to the environment by fires.

An exciting announcement

As the new 737-700 Fireliner will offer an impressive improvement in the organization’s firefighting capabilities, it is unsurprising that the company’s leadership team was excited by today’s announcement. In a statement, Britt Coulson, the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer, had the following words to share:

“Our new 737-700 Next Gen FIRELINER program will build on our existing 737-300 platform which has been extremely successful for us.”

Coulson would go on to note that the airline’s older generation fireliners have long served as the go-to air tankers for foreign governments to utilize for firefighting purchases. The executive also applauded the jet’s multirole capabilities, as it can transport passengers or cargo when not on firefighting missions.

Photo: Coulson Aviation

Furthermore, Coulson would go on to add that the jet is easy to maintain and is supported by an experienced maintenance and operational crew. The diverse Coulson fleet includes Lockheed C-130 aircraft configured as aerial tankers, alongside multiple converted military helicopters and dozens of other aircraft, according to the company.

Source: Simple Flying