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
'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Premier Legault reiterates that McGill pro-Palestinian camp must be dismantled
Quebec Premier François Legault reiterated that the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University must be dismantled while police remain 'on the lookout for new developments.'
Hulk Hogan, hurricanes and a blockbuster recording: A week in review of the Trump hush money trial
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.