Fire Eaters

The People and Aircraft Combatting Wildfires Over the Last Century

Peter Pigott

• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781459755079
• eBook ISBN:
  9781459755093
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Aeronautic & Astronautic Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

• Timely topic: As wildfires become a seasonal threat, this book celebrates the technology and the people involved in aerial firefighting and gives insight into the dangers and heroism involved
• Showcases people and the airplanes that have revolutionized wildfire fighting, giving an accessible history of the evolution of our ability to fight wildfires
• Author is Canada's foremost aviation history author, and has a deep knowledge of the world of airplanes

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• 1 “Some Say the World Will End in Fire”
• 2 Getting a Bird’s-Eye View: Early Attempts at Aerial Fire Detection
• 3 Sentinels of the Forest Before Aviation
• 4 The First Use of Aircraft to Detect Forest Fires
• 5 Smokejumping
• 6 Water Bombers: A Beginning
• 7 Postwar Water Bombers
• 8 Birddogging
• 9 Catalinas and Cansos
• 10 The Canadairs
• 11 Conair
• 12 Unsung Heroes
• 13 Helicopters and Air Tractors
• Epilogue: The Gods Didn’t Warn Us
• Acknowledgements
• Appendix 1: The Curtiss HS-2L Flying Boat
• Appendix 2: Vickers Vedette Technical Information
• Appendix 3: Neptune Aviation Services
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Image Credits
• Index
• About the Author