OREGON—A display from the Pacific Northwest Region’s Fire and Aviation Management program at the 35th annual Oregon International Air Show, held the last weekend of September in McMinnville, was a booming success. With the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and other acrobatic pilots flying overhead, staff engaged thousands in learning about aviation’s pivotal role in resource and wildfire management.

Not many could resist the opportunity to tour the Shorts SD3-60 Sherpa aircraft used by smokejumpers to parachute to remote fires. Originally built as a passenger plane in the 1980s, the Shorts SD3-60 is known for its distinctive design, that comes from having a larger, swept tail unit mounted on a revised rear fuselage. Visitors asked how many people the turboprop aircraft could carry and how far it could fly.

The answers? The aircraft has enough room for 10 jumpers, the pilots, a spotter and a payload that maxes out around 2,600 pounds, including the boxes of food, water, camping gear and other equipment that are also dropped from the aircraft. This enables smokejumpers to be self-sufficient for the first 48 hours of suppressing a wildfire.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems on display drew lots of questions regarding UAS mission capabilities, from conducting ignitions for strategic firing operations to infrared heat sensing along wildfire perimeters.

The largest UAS on display was the Alta X, which is equipped with an Ignis PSD machine to deploy plastic spheres about the size of paintballs, known as dragon eggs. The chemical inside the spheres, potassium permanganate, ignites after being injected with glycol while the UAS is in flight. The spheres are then released across the landscape to best achieve desired burning patterns and intensity pre-determined through close coordination between fire managers, predictive services (weather) forecasters and skilled UAS pilots.

With Smokey Bear’s message as relevant today as ever, it was also exciting to present kids who visited the booth with Smokey giveaways as part of their first experience learning about the importance of preventing human-caused fires. Discussion also turned nostalgic as some visitors recounted when they first learned about Smokey Bear and his fire prevention message, with many referencing the comic books they’ve kept for decades.

“Public contact and connection is critical in delivering the message of what the U.S. Forest Service represents,” said Inaki Baraibar, smokejumper training manager for the North Cascades Smokejumper Base. “These types of public events are the perfect platform for engaging with the public on a personal level and exploring interests in all of the resource management areas that we represented.”

Visitors agreed. One wide-eyed kid summed it up best when he exclaimed, “This plane is cooler than my shark shirt!” Thank you to everyone who stopped by the booth and enjoyed the show with us and may all who take to the skies stay safe!