AIR International – June 2018

(Jacob Rumans) #1

COMMERCIAL CL-415EAF


50 | http://www.airinternational.com

I


n June 2016, Viking Aircraft of British
Colombia, Canada announced a major
development: the acquisition of the
type certificates and manufacturing
rights for all variants of Bombardier’s
amphibious aircraft.
The acquisition, following Bombardier’s
strategic decision to focus on airliners
and business jets, meant Viking assumed
responsibility for all product support, parts
and maintenance activities for the worldwide
fleet of Bombardier aerial firefighters and
multi-purpose aircraft – CL-415s, CL-415MPs
and variants and its CL-215 piston-engine
and CL-215T turboprop predecessors – from
a newly acquired, specially repurposed
50,000ft^2 (4,645m^2 ) facility in Calgary, Alberta.

The deal further strengthened the Canadian
company’s specialism of providing product
support for legacy de Havilland Canada piston
and turboprop aircraft, after earlier acquiring
the Chipmunk, Beaver, Otter, Twin Otter,
Caribou, Buffalo and Dash 7 type certificates
from Bombardier.
Nearly two years later, in May 2018,
Viking announced the next step in its
management of the amphibious aircraft
range: the launch of the CL-415 Enhanced
Aerial Firefighter (CL-415EAF) conversion
programme through sister company
Longview Aviation Asset Management
(LAAM), involving a major upgrade and
conversion to specially-selected legacy
CL-215 aerial firefighters.

The CL-415EAF is significant not just because
it will introduce new features to a legacy
product, but also because it is a bridge to a
potential new-production aerial firefighter,
the Viking CL-515.

Amphibian ancestry
There is a long history of producing specialist
amphibious aerial firefighting aircraft in
Canada. The original CL-215 powered by two
Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp R-2800 radial
engines flew in 1967 and entered service with
the Sécurité Civile (French Civil Protection
Agency) two years later. Production of the
CL-215 ended in 1990.
The CL-215T, a turbine retrofit introducing
Pratt & Whitney Canada PW123AF turboprops

Viking Air Limited is enhancing the CL-415 and
development of its aerial firefighter might not
stop there. Mark Broadbent reports

Canada’s firefighter

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