A handful of iconic tri-jets, more than 50 years old, still soar across American skies, performing some of the most demanding roles in aviation.

Helping in that fight is Albuquerque-based 10 Tanker. Its fleet consists of four DC-10 tanker planes that can each hold and drop a massive 9,500 gallons of fire retardant.

Large firefighting air tankers like the DC-10 that is stationed in Mesa at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport are a reassuring sight but their use has been somewhat controversial.

Kevin Hopf needs to go bomb a fire. The DC-10 air tanker he flies has stood by, resting on the apron of the Casper/Natrona County International Airport all day Tuesday, as smaller aircraft fight ...

You have probably first heard, then seen, air tankers fly through the big sky to fight wildfires, and this fire season, ...

Capt. RK Smithley, in the cockpit of his DC-10 Air Tanker, drops fire retardant to slow the wildfires in Los Angeles.

A pair of the modified McDonnell Douglas DC-10s could be used to carried thousands of gallons of retardant to bomb fires in Arizona this summer.

Albuquerque-based 10 Tanker Air Carrier deploys planes to help combat Los Angeles fires.

The last DC-10 aircraft rolled off the McDonnell Douglas production line in nearby Long Beach, California, nearly four decades ago, but 10 Tanker's planes have been reoutfitted to carry and ...

A Ligonier native — and a former firefighter at Ligonier Station 43 — is out in California helping fight the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.

As it stands, ch-aviation data list eight active DC-10 airframes, although none of them are active for passenger flights. Four of these eight aircraft are used as tankers, while others are used in ...