Conair Firecat
The Conair Firecat is a Canadian aerial-firefighting conversion of the Grumman S-2 Tracker naval anti-submarine aircraft. Conair replaced the Tracker’s radial engines with turboprops and adapted the fuselage to carry fire retardant, giving a retired carrier aircraft a second career over wildfires. The conversion’s speed and manoeuvrability made it especially useful for initial attack on emerging fires. Its naval ancestry is still visible in the Tracker’s high tail and compact twin-engine layout.
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Did you know?
The Conair Firecat converted a retired Navy S-2 Tracker submarine hunter into a wildfire bomber, prized for its speed on fast-developing fires.
Specifications
| Length | 13.3 m (44 ft) |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 22.1 m (73 ft) |
| Height | 5 m (16 ft) |
| Persons on board | 4 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Maximum take-off weight | 13.2 t |
| Range | 1,100 NM (2,037 km) |
| Maximum speed | 260 kt (482 km/h) |
| Service ceiling | 22,000 ft (6,706 m) |
| Optimum ceiling | 10,000 ft (3,048 m) |
| Rate of climb | 1,920 ft/min (9.8 m/s) |
| Take-off distance | 550 m (1,804 ft) |
| Landing distance | 570 m (1,870 ft) |
| Engines | 2x Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67AF |
Curated by CatchFlights from manufacturer documents, ICAO Doc 8643 and reference works; values are left out where no source could confirm them. Sources are listed on our credits page.
In CatchFlights
In CatchFlights the Conair Firecat starts as a Very rare catch. The tier is an editorial judgement of how special a sighting of this type is. The more often you catch it, the closer it moves to Common for you.
A catch counts for the manufacturer Conair, the Firecat family and the model in your collection, and the daily Type Rating quiz asks about the types of each family.
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