De Havilland Canada is assembling its first DHC-515 Firefighter in Calgary and expects to begin delivering the aircraft by early 2028, a bit later than previously anticipated.
But De Havilland vice-president of corporate affairs Neil Sweeney says the programme is progressing well and that De Havilland has worked through supply chain troubles.
“Getting the supply chain back into fighting shape was the first job,” Sweeney says. “The team worked really hard to reassemble the supply chain.”
“We are in really good shape,” he adds. “The first [DHC-515] is actually an assembly right now in Calgary.”
De Havilland’s development of the twin Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) PW100-powered DHC-515 water bomber – an update to the CL-415 – has required the company reboot a production system and supplier network idled since 2015, when Bombardier – the programme’s previous owner – stopped producing CL-415s.
De Havilland has stood up DHC-515 production in Calgary, some 1,900 miles west of Bombardier’s former Montreal assembly site – and done so as suppliers across the chain continue working to overcome labour and quality problems stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.
De Havilland has for several months been producing DHC-515 components. It makes the aircraft’s airframes, wings, cockpits and other aerostructures in house.
Sweeney tells FlightGlobal De Havilland aims to roll out the first DHC-515 at the end of 2027 or beginning of 2028, and for the first aircraft to be flying in time for the 2028 fire season – which aligns with the northern hemisphere’s warm-weather months.
De Havilland sister company Viking Air in 2022 launched development of the DHC-515 (then called the CL-515), aiming to deliver the first by mid-decade. This year, De Havilland and Viking parent Longview Aviation Capital merged the entities into a single operation called De Havilland; with the change, the -515 took De Havilland’s naming convention to become the DHC-515.
The company declines to comment about changes to later delivery schedule.
The DHC-515 will cruise at up to 187kt (346km/h), carry up to 6,137 litres (1,621 gallon) of water and be capable of filling its tanks within 12sec by performing an in-flight scooping manoeuvre over lakes and other water bodies, De Havilland says.
Changes from the prior-generation CL-415 include an improved air conditioning system, a “new water-drop control system” and tweaks to improve corrosion resistance, says Sweeney.
De Havilland previously planned for DHC-515s to have Collins Aerospace’s Pro Line Fusion digital avionics but has since decided to equip the type with Universal Avionics’ InSight glass cockpit, which includes touch screens.
“We were looking at Collins… and we just couldn’t find a way to make it work,” says Sweeney, citing integration challenges and noting the Pro Line system is found in large commercial aircraft. “The Collins suite is a very good suite, but probably too robust for the aircraft.”
“We went back to the drawing board and ended up with Universal,” he adds. “Universal is a little bit more flexible… and the integration has been easier.”
De Havilland has pitched DHC-515s as capable of performing missions beside firefighting, including surveillance, maritime patrol and medevac flights, but Sweeney says De Havilland’s current focus is “solely” on water bombers.
The company holds firm orders for 20 DHC-515s from several European countries. Customers include Croatia, Greece, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, according to the Canadian Commercial Corporation, the federal agency that helped arrange government-to-government sales.
“We’re in discussions with a number of current and potential operators for future orders,” adds Sweeney, saying interest remains strong due to increased frequency of wildfires.
The global in-service fleet of prior-generation CL-series water bombers stands at 150, among them 33 of the original piston-powered CL-215s and 117 PW100-powered variants, according to Cirium data. The turboprop variants include CL-215Ts, CL-415s and CL-415EAFs (Enhanced Aerial Firefighters).
Many of those are getting ripe for replacement; some CL-215s are more than 50 years old.
“Demand will come from the current fleet operators,” Sweeney says, citing Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Europe, the USA and countries in Africa and the Mediterranean region as possible buyers.
He says De Havilland will eventually produce nine to 12 DHC-515s annually. The company also intends to relocate production from Calgary to De Havilland Field, a massive under-construction site east of Calgary in sparsely populated Wheatland County, Alberta. De Havilland plans to move its manufacturing, maintenance and parts distribution work to the site, which will include a runway.
“We anticipate breaking ground next year,” Sweeney says, adding that the first buildings at De Havilland Field should be operating around 2028 – several years later than the company previously expected.
The DHC-515 builds on the original piston-powered CL-215 introduced by long-defunct Canadair in the 1960s. Bombardier purchased Canadair in 1986, then sold the CL programme in 2016 to Viking Air.
Other variants include CL-215Ts, which are CL-215s modified to have PW100s, and CL-415s, which were built new with PW100s.
Several years ago, Viking also launched the CL-415EAF – a further CL-215 modification that involved adding both PW100s and updated avionics. Viking delivered the first CL-415EAF to Bridger Aerospace in 2020.
