Check this presentation out from the Northwest Aviation Conference in 2011. A fellow there presented on what he thought would be the "Ultimate Fire Scooper" http://www.alberniweather.ca/fire/ultimatescooper.png He proposed a combination of the Hawaii Mars and a couple of the small "Airboss" planes that "replaced" the Mars, would add up to the "ultimate airborne tsunami" in the air! And at $28,000 per hour to fly*, it would be 35% cheaper per litre of water ($0.85/L vs. $1.33/L) than the 4 small planes they are using now. That's at $20,000/hr for the Mars (27,000L) and $4000/hr for the small planes (3000L ea). I found the costs per hour in documents you can download here: http://www.alberniweather.ca/fire Keep it up all! We're going to win this thing! The province is still burning through its budget, putting firefighters and property in danger, and this bomber could be helping in less than 10 days. Chris