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U.S. to Test New
\\ capon to Fight
Wilderness Fires
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE.
Calif. '/P* — Sometime in the next
few weeks a triangular missile
will drop from a plane high over
the desert and dive-bomb a simu
lated brush fire with a ton of
flame-retarding chemicals.
If it works, the U.S. Forest Serv
ice will have found a new weapon
against wilderness fires — and a
possible replacement for the haz
ardous water-bombing technique
which has cost the lives of more
than 50 pilots in the last two
years.
With the forest fire season just
opening, officials are rushing plans
for their first test of the radio
guided glider called “Firebird.”
With luck it may be ready for
actual use by the time summer
heat and drought turn the west's
million of acres of brush and tim
ber into a giant tinder box.
Date and details of the test are
being kept secret. “We want to
be sure it will work before we
arouse any hopes," a source said.
It is known that a small bomb
er. possibly a B-25 or a B-26, has
been rigged here to carry one or
more of the Firebirds in the up
coming test. The target area prob
ably wall be one of the bombing
ranges of this Mojave Desert test
center, a source said.
The Firebird, 13 feet long and
11 feet across is Delta wing, is
controlled in flight by radio either
in the mother plane or on the
ground.
The manufacturer, Accurate
Electronics of North Hollywood,
Calif., calls it a guided missile—
but not a rocket, because it has
no engine. It enables aerial fire
fighters to unleash their load of
chemicals in safety up to five miles
away, instead of having to fly
through smoke and flames to reach
hot spots.
Planes of the type used to bomb
fires with water and chemicals can
be rigged to carry as many as
five Firebirds apiece. Each Fire
bird has a capacity of 2,000 pounds.
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