The INSANE plane built to fight fires - CL 415

Video from the channel Found And Explained about Canadair CL-415, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 15:27. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

The video covers the Canadair CL-415, known as the "Super Scooper", in connection with the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, in which it took part. It tells of its origins, its upgrades and how it works on a fire.

The CL-415 is derived from the CL-215, which was unveiled in the late 1960s. Canadair, which until then built American jets such as the Sabre or the F-5 under licence, conceived it as one of the first aircraft designed solely to fight fires. 125 CL-215s were built. In the late 1980s Bombardier bought Canadair, and in the early 1990s it was decided to develop an improved version. That is how the CL-415 came about, which according to the video first flew in 1994.

According to the video, the CL-415 carries about 6,100 litres, has better avionics and is built with more resistant materials. It has two Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines, weighs 19,000 kg at takeoff and has a 28 m wingspan. The video describes the working cycle: it skims low over the water, fills its tank in about 12 seconds, drops on the fire front or hotspots and reloads, coordinated with ground crews. Among its limits it cites dependence on weather, wind and darkness, and the need to have water nearby. It compares it with larger tanker aircraft, such as the DC-10, the Il-76 or the 747 Supertanker, retired in 2021. It also recalls that on 9 January one of the aircraft in Los Angeles collided with a civilian drone and landed without harm to the crew.