The World's Best Amphibious Firefighting Aircraft

De Havilland built the best firefighting aircraft that was built from the ground up. It's only purpose is to fight forest fires. Meet the Canadair CL-515 from De Havilland/Viking.

This aircraft has seen quite the transformation from it's original predecessor the CL-215 that was designed back in the 1960's, with the first production delivery in June 1969. Originally it was thought to be used for other missions types, including passenger services, freight transport, and air-sea search and rescue operations. Production for the CL-215 stopped in 1990 and a few years later in 1993 an upgraded version the CL-415.

Today we can find the Canadair "Super Scooper" used around the world to fight fires. Canada has 64, Spain 25, Italy 18, Greece 17, France 12 and so on.

The CL-515 was an upgrade on the CL-415. New design features included new material, corrosion protection to reduce maintenance, avionics suite, reliability, enhanced safety, and incredible situational awareness.

Manitoba has just ordered 3 new CL-515 to replace the aging CL-215s they currently use.

Press release April 25, 2025 with Premier Wab Kinew

The first of the Canadair CL-515 is scheduled to arrive in 2031 with the other two arriving in 2032. The CL-515 has incredible take of and landing capabilities, the larger wing and control surfaces provide exceptional handling, with an outstanding 12 second scooping time and is the only aircraft in it's category that is certified to operate in waves up to 2 meters. The first CL-515 was produced in 2022.

Have you ever seen a Canadair CL-215, CL-415 or CL-515 in action? What did you think of this aircraft?