Ever heard of the Ilyushin-76TD "Waterbomber"? Neither had I until I read this article.

It's an 11,000-gallon tanker plane; that's almost 4 times bigger than the American Forest Service's piddly 3,000 gallon tanker planes. Hmmm, Definitely could have been useful this past week. In fact, it still could be!

Obviously it's politics that's preventing this Russian built plane from showing up in the US to save lives and prevent property damage.

Meh, good to know, but who's going to do anything about it?

- Omar Z.