8
We already do. Though the issue now is that northern and southern hemisphere fire seasons are increasingly overlapping, making sharing firefighting aircraft much more difficult.
I didn't know that! They should make a diplomatic/political event of solidarity, a great global migration of firefighting aircraft shared by nations all trying to mitigate climate change and preserve human and natural landscapes!!?
Why doesn't everyone know about this!? The story sells itself.
It is in the news, though there's usually not a huge song-and-dance about it. It's mostly just mates helping mates (with the necessary international agreements in place).
Australia has regularly sent large air tankers and firefighters to the U.S. and Canada (though I'm unsure about aircraft into Canada), and most recently firefighting helicopters and firefighters to France.
My understanding (which may be wrong) is that in the last few years we've increasingly seen fires outside of the expected fire season. For example, our awful 2019-2020 fire season began in August, iirc; and the fire that gutted parts of LA was at the beginning of January. With this happening, you can't really afford to have critical resources on the other side of the planet if you want to be protected at home. It's going to get harder even to send a team to help the other hemisphere, some years; though I'm sure both countries will still try to do that much.
Ok about what about a 2/3rds - 1/3rd split that oscillates with the seasons?
I’m not an expert by any means, but I believe the logistics of flying across major oceans makes it somewhat more impractical for shared resources like that.
The Australians have a 737 that gets across the Pacific easily.
They were in California last season https://youtu.be/e6VB6FiJowE
For the helicopters you can put them on cargo ships and then it is cheap as heck.
For the fixed wing aircraft, I don't know is two cross hemisphere flights a year really more carbon footprint than two identical fleets of highly expensive materially intensive aircraft?
I don't know.... maybe but I kind of doubt it since if I wanted to buy an airplane it would be much cheaper to buy it from the otherside of the world premade than attempt to build it myself... so?
I think it is an interesting question to ponder is what I am saying.
How long does a cargo ship take to get between Australia and Europe or the North American west coast? I imagine it’d be a few weeks at least to LA, and longer to, say, Piraeus or Marseille via the Suez Canal, during which you hope neither side needs those helicopters.
Sure but that doesn't seem like a dealbreaker, definitely a drawback though.
I didn’t even think of the helicopters, but yes, that transport is relatively easy. My experience is tangentially related to the fixed wing jet tankers.
I think that firefighting activity stresses airframes more than usual as well, so I was also estimating from that maintenance side.
I figure that it could be done, generally, but timelines would probably be tight and costs could escalate quickly, both financially and environmentally.
Too far away.
If canada needs more, they can build, or buy more, or are they too busy building oil pipelines?
Than why is it cheaper and more advisable to buy an airplane built on the other side of the world (legal complications aside for a moment) than build one yourself?
this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2026
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