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'Humvee' of the skies also likes the sea
By KELLEY BENHAM, Times Staff Writer
LARGO -- A funny-looking airplane bobbing in the bay Tuesday brought airport radio waves alive with alarm. "Plane down," pilots called in. "Plane in the water." The pilot in the cockpit of the massive floating machine just shrugged. "Yeah," he said. "That's what we should be doing." The plane lifted easily out of the water with its 100-foot wings and, sometime later, landed on the tarmac at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. It's one of two visiting amphibious airplanes drawing long looks from airport regulars and passers-by on the road. The Bombardier CL-415s look like giant crustaceans beside the passenger planes and executive jets. One is a fast-food red and yellow, the other a menacing military gray. The planes, in town from their native Canada to be test-flown for the National Guard, can be seen in local skies and waters in the next two weeks. The National Guard is test-flying them because they can do what other modern North American planes can't -- take off and land on land or in water. That makes them potentially suitable for a number of missions, said Peter Likoray, who sells them for Bombardier Aerospace of Montreal at $20-million apiece plus accessories. "They're a workhorse," he said. He acknowledged that, aesthetically, they lack a certain something. "They're like a Humvee," he said. "Like a flying tank." They could be used to intercept drug dealers, rescue people at sea or fight terrorists. They could land on water, deploy a boat out the back door, catch bad guys, and carry them off. They're easy to maneuver at low altitudes and could carry testing equipment through low-hanging chemical clouds. During terrorist attacks, if airports were shut down, these planes could get people and supplies close to emergencies by landing in water, Likoray said. The National Guard is testing them first in Florida and then in the high altitudes of Arizona and in Pennsylvania to decide how it might use them. The basic model can be souped-up with another $10-million of technology -- surveillance radar, precision navigation, powerful communications equipment. "People are amazed by them," Likoray said. He won't call them ugly. He thinks they are almost cute -- "so unique." They have a wide, V-shaped belly like a boat, and oversized wings so they can take off with little runway. The inside is bigger than a school bus and about as luxurious -- just a big empty shell for holding water, people and supplies. The cockpit is air-conditioned, but climate control in the rear costs extra. There is an anchor on a rope down by the pilot's feet. Only 56 have been sold, plus 125 of the earlier version first built in 1966. The closest is based in North Carolina. Most are used to fight forest fires. They scoop water out of lakes or oceans, fly just above the treetops and dump 1,600 gallons at a time. "If you're any kind of aviation buff, this is something to see," said Don Owens, a Coast Guard consultant who is conducting the tests. "Once you see one, you never forget it." Flying one is like driving a super-fast speedboat, said flight engineer Stephen McWalter. There is no autopilot. They skim the water at 90 miles per hour. McWalter has taken the plane to 23 countries since it was built a year ago. Everywhere they go together -- Morocco, India, Thailand -- cameras follow, he said. He won't call the plane ugly either. "They develop a soul," he said, staring at his plane as an elegant Cessna zipped past. "It has a character all its own." -- Kelley Benham can be reached at 445-4174 or benham@sptimes.com
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 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
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