Star Tribune
ST. PAUL, Minn. — From an airplane hangar in St. Paul, an aviation engineering business is working to put out wildfires in a quintessential Minnesota way: using lakes.
Fighting wildfires requires getting lots of water into places that can be slow to reach by land. Pilots have been using airplanes to scoop up lake water to fight fires for decades — but it’s always been risky. Several crash each year, often on the water, where pilots can hit a wave and sink or take off too early and stall out…