From “Jumbolino” to firefighting aircraft: the extreme makeover of OO-DWA

OO-DWA, the British Aerospace Avro RJ100 regional jet that has been flying from Brussels Airport for almost twenty years, has reached another career level: operating for Aero-Flite, an American firefighting company.

In June 1997 OO-DWA was delivered to Delta Air Transport, operating flights for Sabena. After the demise of Sabena in 2001, the aircraft was transferred to SN Brussels Airlines in February 2002. The jumbolino performed its last commercial flight for Brussels Airlines from Prague to Brussels back in January 2017.

Aero-Flite’s primary strength with their current fleet of “Next Generation” firefighting aircraft happens primarily during the initial attack phase of wildland fires. The CL-415s utilize water sources near developing fires to quickly suppress the flames.  The 415’s when operated in unison as pairs provide extremely accurate, agile and ecologically protective results.  In addition their state of the art “Next Generation” Avro RJs are capable of extremely fast dash speeds; simultaneously, delivering up to 3000 gallons of fire retardant as an aid in the support of wildland fire management and ground fire-fighters.

On the Aero-Flite website we found these pictures of other RJs.

Four engine reliability providing excellent short field performance along with multiple system redundancy. The RJ provides excellent low speed and high speed performance making this aircraft an ideal airtanker in any terrain. To the airtanker operator, this means fire fighting excellence.

Additional specifications of the Aero-flite’s RJs