Minden Air's plan to convert passenger aircraft takes flight

The completion of a years-long plan to renovate a British-made passenger plane into a firefighting air tanker could lead to a marked boost in revenues and increased employment for Minden Air Corp.

Minden Air is retrofitting a British Aerospace 146 passenger plane that formerly ferried up to 100 passengers throughout Canada. Minden Air has spent the past few years working with the Federal Aviation Administration to get approval for the extensive renovations required to transform a commercial aircraft into an air tanker.

The good news for Minden Air: Once the FAA approves its design the company can use its work as a blueprint to quickly transform additional BAE 146s into fire-fighting air planes.

The retrofit isn't as simple as removing the seats and lavatory and fitting the interior with a tank to hold fire retardant. Tim Christy, director of flight operations for Minden Air, says every single nut and bolt on the plane has to be mapped out and provided with specifications for strength, torque and materials.

"It has been a long process and a very interesting process," Christy says. "It is very innovative, and there are no guarantees. Some changes, you talk to the engineers and then you have to go out to the airplane and see if it is going to fit and how it is going to work."

Every creature comfort on the plane has been stripped, primarily to cut down on weight and to allow for easier structural inspections. Minden Air is finalizing plans to install a 3,100-gallon tank to eject retardant from the plane's belly.

Working through the extensive requirements by the FAA has been one of the most difficult aspects of the project, Christy says. Minden Air's large team of engineers and mechanics relish the "real" work of the project.

"Turning nuts and bolts is the fun part," Christy says. "The hands-on stuff is really the fun stuff. But you do have a mountain of paperwork going back and forth with FAA engineers. That is the detail work."

Minden Air owns a second BAE 146 that it plans to renovate once the approval process is complete. The company currently has one plane in service, a P-2 air tanker. The company tested the viability of the new aircraft by loading it with sandbags and traveling some flight profiles previous used to fight fires.

The fan-jet powered BAE 146 proved a much better fit for firefighting than the P-2 because it can fly about 500 miles an hour, or about 50 times faster, which significantly cuts down response times to fires.

It also handles downhill flight patterns much better than the prop-powered P-2, which gives pilots a better drop pattern for the retardant. The P-2, first built in the 1940s, only can handle about 2,100 gallons of retardant.

Contract firefighting is Minden Air's primary source of revenue. Once the new plane is in service Minden Air hopes to bring the craft online in May it expects to significantly increase its revenues and add more pilots and mechanics to its staff.

Christy says there is a general shortage of firefighting aircraft, and the company's plans to develop more air tankers fills a void in the market. Minden Air primarily contracts with the U.S. Forest Service and state governments as first responders to fires.

"We believe this is the best conversion for the airplane and that the market is going to be there. They are going to want more of them."

Minden Air employs about 40 from its 13,000-square-foot facility, which includes three hangars. The company might look at expanding its footprint through acquisition of existing space or expansion once its additional craft come online. It also could boost revenues by contracting with governments in South America once its planes are offline in the U.S. during wet winter months.

The plan for using the BAE 146, which went into service in 1989, first came about in 1998, Christy says. Cost for the craft was too prohibitive since it was still in service throughout North America.

The aircraft went out of service in the United States in 2005, however, which pushed the price down and made a renovation plan for the craft much more feasible.

Minden Air expects to log roughly 300 hours per year on the BAE 146 aircraft. By way of comparison, commercial airlines log as many as 1,500 flight hours per month on similar aircraft, Christy says.

Minden Air was founded in 1990 by Janet and Leonard Parker. The company operates out of Minden Tahoe Airport and has grown to become one of the airport's largest employers.