Get to know the ‘Super Scooper’ airplanes fighting wildfires in Colorado
The Colorado Sun
Dean Krakel/Special to The Colorado Sun
They look like airplanes a child might build with Legos or scribble with red and yellow crayons. They are boxy and potbellied, maybe because they are basically flying boats with really long wings. Their cartoon-worthy name — Super Scoopers — belies their serious mission as aerial firefighters.
As these Super Scoopers have been swooping onto Blue Mesa Reservoir this week to skim up tank loads of water, they have become the darlings of selfie-grabbing passersby wowed by this part of the aerial arsenal battling the 4,000-plus acres of flames scorching the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Not to downplay the dangerous, destructive, and disruptive nature of wildfires — especially one estimated to deliver a $34 million hit to a local economy — but a bit of colorful firefighting flair seems to be a welcome diversion from the angry-looking belches and billows of smoke piling up over ridges of the Black Canyon.
“We’re all 12 years old at heart. We never really grow up,” said David Russell, an avid aviation photographer and former commercial pilot from Crested Butte who was one of those lining up along the reservoir to capture images of the Super Scooper this week.
“I’ve not seen these planes a lot, well, actually, not at all, and here they are in my backyard,” enthused another Super Scooper watcher, Peter Barth of Montrose.
