Since the end of the 1970s, aviation has always played an essential role in the fight against forest fires. But it is a niche market, where the manufacturers do not jostle, and seek rather to transform commercial or military planes with kits, giant tanks installed in the cabin.
In the West, the only real manufacturer of “water bomber” planes is the Canadian De Havilland, the subsidiary of Bombardier, manufacturer of the famous Canadair, the latest version of which, the DHC-515, has been the subject of all attention. , this week, at the Farnborough Airshow in Britain.
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The DHC 515, is the successor to the CL415, the production of which was relaunched last March, following a group order from France, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Spain to 22 water bombers. An order added to that placed by Indonesia.
The other totally amphibious device is Russian. This is the Beriev 200, a large four-jet engine, capable of carrying 12 tonnes of water, tested in 2018 by the French Civil Security, and whose impressive evolutions we could see, a few years ago, during the meeting air from Biscarosse in the Landes. Program today “black listed” due to the war in Ukraine.
China has also developed an amphibian of gargantuan dimensions, the AG600, a device which is only at the test stage, as for Japan, it has tried to sell to France, US2, a little similar to the Canadair but more at home in heavy seas.
For a long time, the largest water bomber aircraft was a Boeing 747-400 converted by the Canadian company Evergreen. But much too expensive to operate, the plane was sold last year and converted into a freighter.
Finally in Toulouse, the AKKA engineering group developed a kit last year to temporarily transform a military transport plane, A400M or Casa 235 or Hercules C130 into a water bomber. A relatively simple kit, provided that the plane is equipped with a rear cargo door, which will allow an A400M to drop up to 20 tons of water against 6 currently with a Canadair.