Nova procura de aviões de combate a incêndios infographic
A infografia mostra o avião de combate a indêndios DHC-515 “Canadair” e o aumento de incêndios florestais no globo.
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AVIAÇÃO

Avião de combate a incêndios retoma a produção

By Ninian Carter

September 17, 2024 - Retirado de produção em 2015, o DHC-515 “Canadair” do Canadá,
o melhor avião anfíbio de combate a incêndios do mundo, vai voltar
a ser produzido após uma encomenda de 22 novos aviões da UE.

Globally, 2023 was the worst year for wildfires, with an area approximately the size of North Korea going up in flames.

One of the key methods for fighting forest fires is to use firefighting aircraft to douse the flames from the sky.

The DHC-515 Firefighter, also known as the “Canadair”, is the world’s best amphibious firefighting plane. Formerly built by Bombardier, until financial woes caused it to sell off the unit to De Havilland, the plane has been out of production since 2015.

The new owners first considered restarting production of the plane in 2019, but needed a minimum number of orders to mitigate high production costs.

Then in 2020, with climate change causing increasing numbers of fires every year, the EU started looking at expanding its aerial firefighting fleet. By combining demand from across the region, it has been able to place an order for 22 new planes – enough to get production back up and running.

The aircraft, including a few upgrades to avionics, cost €50 million each and will be delivered to Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain – taking around 18-36 months for the order to be completed at De Havilland’s Calgary plant in Canada.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 18/09/2024; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Getty Images
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