Good news for Europe’s firefighting fleets from the Farnborough International Air Show, east of London, which is taking place these days.
The aircraft manufacturer De Havilland Canada has in fact provided some updates on the production of the new DHC-515 “water bomber” aircraft, for which the European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen had allocated 600 million euros during the latter part of the first mandate. The prototypes of the new airplane are in production and the first examples will be used for certification while Canadian Commercial Corporation has announced the signing of new contracts with Greece, Croatia and Portugal for eleven aircraft. These nations will thus be the first of the consortium of European Union countries that have announced their intention to initially purchase 22 examples, effectively becoming the launch customers of the DHC-515 program.
The aircraft has been eagerly awaited for years by all nations that operate its predecessor, the CL-415, for which the Canadian company Viking Air recently announced that it could put spare parts back into production for existing fleets, the majority of which date back to the 1990s.
