Last week’s Paris Air Show gave Airbus a chance to gloat on several fronts, as it tallied 58 firm aircraft orders for the week – well beyond the two firm orders Boeing pull in but less than a quarter of last year’s tally for Airbus at Farnborough, England. And Airbus said it remains in a strong position to bid on the U.S. Air Force’s forthcoming midair refueling tanker contract, the London Telegraph reported. Airbus plans to again offer a modified A330, which would be built in Alabama. Boeing said it would give the Air Force a choice of a modified 767 or larger 777. The latter would likely be more expensive, but would be able to hold more fuel and cargo than the A330. Last fall, the Air Force withdrew the contract after awarding it to Airbus, when the Department of Defense found that Boeing had been unfairly penalized in scoring the competing offerings. But Airbus remains confident it will prevail again in a contract that could mean $35 billion of revenue for one of the companies in the coming years.

Though two companies have modified versions of a DC-10 and a Boeing 747 ready to fight fires, the U.S. Forest Service has been reluctant to let its money be spent hiring such large equipment. The companies flying those planes are hoping for that to change now that a 400-page NASA study says the aircraft are suitable for fighting fires in flat and hilly areas, the Associated Press reported. The NASA study cautioned the planes shouldn’t be used in rugged, mountainous terrain, though, because they’re less maneuverable than the smaller planes currently used in aerial attacks. The operators of the DC-10 say it has been used in rugged areas of California safety by requiring pilots to fly 300 feet above ground level. A smaller lead plane typically flies ahead of the DC-10 to determine how stable the air is and whether there are any downdrafts in the vicinity. The DC-10, which has flown 245 missions fighting fires on a contract with the state of California, can drop 12,000 gallons of water or retardant at once, ten times the capacity of a conventional air tanker. But because the U.S. Forest Service picks up the tab on many forest fire efforts, the plane can’t be used outside of California where the Forest Service money would be paying for it. The 747, operated by an Oregon company, has been tested but not used fighting actual fires. It has a 24,000 gallon capacity. One big benefit of large air tankers is that they can drop a long and thick line of retardant along a ridge in one pass to stop a fire’s advance.