Vancouver Island company retrofits Boeing 737 into firefighting plane
A well-known aviation company in Port Alberni, B.C., has reached a new height and hosted a celebration on Monday to mark the event.
Coulson Aviation completed the conversion of its third Boeing 737 aircraft into a flying tanker to fight fires, and invited family members of employees who worked on the aircraft to celebrate the achievement.
"Well it's great. Nobody really sees what we do here so when they open the doors like this and have a little barbecue everybody gets to come in and enjoy what we work so hard for," said Danny Stringer, a program manager for Coulson Aviation.
The retrofitted Boeing 737 plane is shown. (CTV News)
Stringer's family attended a family barbecue at the company's Alberni airport location along with many others.
The company purchased six 737's from Southwest Airlines and is converting them all into tankers for fighting fires in international locations.
"It's a very unique airplane," said company co-president Britt Coulson. "This is only the third 737 large air tanker in the world."
"We have two more in behind it ready to be modified and everyone has a lot of pride in the work that they do here, so it's pretty cool to have that family mentality and ownership that they had a piece to manufacture and build," he said.
Family members tour the recently retrofitted Boeing 737 plane. (CTV News)
DESTINED FOR U.S. AND AUSTRALIA
The aircraft will fly to Idaho on Tuesday to get its aviation inspection before being put to work in the U.S.
"It's going to be carded in Idaho and then it will go to work for the United States Forest Service and then this aircraft will run the Lower 48, so wherever there's fires and it's needed it'll go to work" said president and CEO, Wayne Coulson.
Coulson says the aircraft will be used in the U.S. until the end of November before being sent to Australia on a multi-year contract.
Roughly 40,000 hours went into the conversion, plus between 5,000 to 8,000 hours for the tank manufacturing.
Britt Coulson says another aircraft should arrive in Port Alberni within the next two weeks to undergo the same conversion.
"We do very unique programs here where you take something, like an ex-Southwest Airlines 737 [and] fully convert it to something that is unique in the world," he said.
"To be able to see that from conception through manufacture, through installation, through completion, is a pretty unique opportunity and to have all the family members and everyone come out and spend a couple of hours with it is pretty cool," said Coulson.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.