Canadair CL-415 DHC-515 Firefighter

The DHC-515 grew out of the closure of the CL-415 line. On 20 June 2016 it was announced that Viking Air was purchasing the CL-415 type certificate from Bombardier, together with those of the CL-215 and CL-215T; the acquisition was finalised on 3 October 2016 and, shortly afterwards, Viking began work on the design of a modernised version, the CL-515. The French source records that in 2018 Viking Air announced its intention to launch that version if an order threshold of 25 units was reached; the same year, according to the CL-215 source, the company applied for government support to restart production of the type.

The CL-515 was conceived as an improved version adapted to a wider range of operations which, in addition to aerial firefighting, included maritime patrol, environmental monitoring, insect control and oil-spill detection. According to the Italian source, tank capacity was increased to 7,000 litres, with the possibility of filling them in 14 seconds, giving 15 per cent higher efficiency; it featured a digitised avionics suite, a larger cargo door for natural-disaster response, interiors prepared for medical evacuation and increased load capacity. The CL-215 source adds instrumentation to keep fighting fires at night and describes the CL-515 as a relaunched production version furnished with the CL-415EAF configuration.

On 21 June 2019 the Indonesian Ministry of Defense announced it was purchasing six CL-515s and one CL-415EAF for delivery in 2024; the French source speaks of a letter of intent for six units, four in multi-mission version and two as water bombers. That agreement, however, proved insufficient to launch production and the project was frozen by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In February 2022 Longview Aviation Capital, Viking Air's parent, regrouped several of its companies under the name De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited. On 31 March 2022 Viking, through De Havilland Canada, renamed the CL-515 as the DHC-515 and announced production and final assembly in Calgary, Alberta, where the CL-215 and CL-415 are already supported; parts of the fuselage and wings will be manufactured in North Saanich, British Columbia, near Victoria International Airport. The start was made possible by 22 letters of intent from European customers: according to the French source, an overall European Union purchase intention for six member states, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Croatia, with twelve aircraft funded by Europe through the rescEU mechanism (two per country) and ten funded directly by the countries, five for Greece and five for Spain. The DHC-515 retains the CL-415 airframe while integrating a fully digital cockpit and modernised avionics; the avionics section of the English-language source attributes the Universal InSight system to it.

The European intentions turned into orders in 2024. According to the Italian source, Croatia ordered two DHC-515 Firefighters on 14 March 2024; Greece seven on 21 March 2024, with the English source recording the announcement on 25 March 2024 of a $530-million deal by prime ministers Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Justin Trudeau; Spain seven on 19 April 2024; Portugal two on 18 July 2024; and the French Sécurité civile acquired two in August 2024. The French source adds that France has ordered four in total: two in 2024 with delivery expected in 2028 and two in 2026 with delivery expected in 2032.

Canadian orders followed the European ones: the Province of Manitoba ordered three aircraft on 16 June 2025 and the Government of Alberta five on 20 February 2026, so that the English source's operator table counts fourteen DHC-515s on order from Canadian public operators as of July 2026.

In March 2026 De Havilland announced that assembly of the first DHC-515 had started in Calgary, with a view to a first delivery in 2028, a date the French source confirms "after multiple postponements". The aircraft is being developed, according to the same source, to respond to the intensification of wildfires linked to climate change, and competes with several European water-bomber projects under development, such as Kepplair's KE72 on an ATR 72 base, Positive Aviation's amphibious FF72 and the Frégate-F100 of the Bordeaux start-up Hynaero. Until those programmes mature, the DHC-515 is the only heavy new-build amphibian in progress, and the natural successor to the 95 CL-415s that left North Bay.