One of the few Bombardier Aerospace products not on show at Farnborough is the Canadair CL-415 water bomber.
The year which saw out-of-control fires from Indonesia through southern Europe to Florida should have been the year that really made the name of the remarkable aircraft. Yet it did quite happen, despite strenuous efforts by the team.
Amphibious Aircraft president Tom Appleton says he is no longer in the aerospace business but in the fire-fighting business.
He has been working hard to convince authorities in the USA that Bombardier has the tool to protect the "urban wildland interface".
'Chief' Appleton says that fire suppression costs in such areas in the USA are running at $10 billion a year. In 1996, six million acres (2.4 million Ha) of land were affected by fire.
The CL-145 is a unique aircraft which skims the water and takes six tonnes of water via a probe.
As well as working hard on the American market - possibly through promoting a nationwide aerial fire-fighting organisation - the Bombardier team has watched as fires raged unchecked in areas like Indonesia.
"We did look at this but there was a lot of politics in the way," says Appleton.
Source: Flight Daily News
