Experts worry about Canadian water bomber expertise with rising demand, aging fleets

MONTREAL –

Aviation consultants say Canada is shedding experience within the manufacturing of water bombers — simply as demand for them is growing.

The Canadair CL-415, a purpose-built water bomber, was final produced in 2015. That airplane and its predecessor — the CL-215 — are the one water bombers utilized in Quebec and play main roles within the fleets of different provinces.

On Monday, water bombers from Montana have been deployed in Quebec to help the province’s firefighters and its fleet of 14 CL-415s and CL-215s. Quebec is experiencing its worst hearth season on file, following a file hearth season in Nova Scotia.

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair informed a news convention earlier this week that the provinces have sufficient gear to combat the fires which might be raging in a number of elements of the nation. If essential, he stated, Ottawa would attempt to purchase extra gear from different nations.

“But we have to know where (the equipment) is and how we can access it very quickly,” he stated.

But discovering planes shortly could also be difficult as a result of different nations are additionally combating fires, stated John Gradek, coordinator of McGill University’s aviation administration program.

“The northern hemisphere is in the fire season,” he stated in an interview. “We’ll be hard-pressed to find a country that can lend us planes.”

Gradek stated he believes the provinces ought to have purchased extra tanker planes. “In Canada, we have 55 Canadair planes — a combination of CL-215s and CL-415s,” he stated, including that “considering the number of fires currently in the country, it’s absolutely insufficient.”

Some of these planes have been constructed 50 years in the past, he stated.

“We don’t build these planes in Canada anymore ΓǪ we try to modify, to maintain and update the components of these planes,” he stated.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault alluded to the upkeep challenges throughout a news convention earlier this week, standing in entrance of a CL-215 that was grounded for repairs.

“When we see a CL-215 that we can’t use because of maintenance issues, you have to ask yourself, do we need more mechanics? The answer is probably yes. Do we need to buy some additional new planes? I think that’s more the way we have to look at it,” he stated.

In 2016, Bombardier, which acquired Canadair within the Nineteen Eighties, bought its water bomber program to British Columbia-based Viking Air.

Viking Air, which plans to construct a manufacturing facility in Western Canada, might start producing new water bombers in 2027, however these planes in all probability will not be used to place out forest fires in Canada, Gradek stated.

“The company will have the capacity to build 10 planes a year,” he stated, including that the primary 25 are already supposed for Indonesia, France, Spain and different European nations,

He stated that if a Canadian province ordered a brand new CL-415, development on it would not possible start earlier than 2030.

“Europeans want the new generation of the Canadair CL-415 and are ready to make major purchases,” he stated, including that the primary era of the airplane was acknowledged for its efficiency all over the world.

If the 2023 hearth season is an indicator of what is to return, nations will more and more want this kind of airplane.

He stated he want to see the federal authorities help Viking Air, “not only so that it can start producing the CL-415, but also to increase the planned production capacity.”

Mehran Ebrahimi, director of the International Aeronautics and Civil Aviation Observatory at Universite du Quebec a Montreal, stated he worries experience is being misplaced, notably in Quebec, since Bombardier ended manufacturing of Canadair water bombers.

“We’ve seen the effects of climate change around the world, so we could have put ourselves in a position not only to produce but also to strategically maintain and preserve our ability to build these aircraft, which require special expertise,” stated the administration professor.

Referring to the CL-215, Ebrahimi stated, “these are planes that we produced and we can’t repair them? What happened there? Where has the expertise gone in the meantime?”

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed June 8, 2023.