Steve’s attention was drawn upward by the heavy thunder of a big rotor.
He completely forgot about the birds gearing up in front of him. A Firehawk came pounding out of the sky. The “01” in gigantic block print on the side identified it as the lead bird. At a thousand gallons, this was a heavyweight champ among this flock of medium- and lightweight-rated birds. The only Type I helitanker in MHA’s fleet.
There were heavier helos around. Columbia, and others had Vertols and Chinooks, but they were downright ungainly compared to the Firehawk. Built from a military Sikorsky Black Hawk, she was the perfect combination of force and agility. A Firehawk could deliver six times the load of the MD 500 into nearly as tight a space—and do it faster.
It was a dream machine like his Trans Am. The sor
