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Viking Air’s New CL-515, Where Multi-Mission is the Watchword
Aug 23, 2020
By Jason Jorgensen
As Viking celebrates its 50th year in the Canadian aerospace industry, the Victoria, British Columbia-based firm is building on its storied reputation as a manufacturer of some of the best firefighting aircraft in the world by unveiling the brand new CL-515 First Responder, a scooping aircraft which takes the workhorse CL-415 aircraft to a whole new level. Michael Archer reports.
A Little History
Incorporated in 1970, Viking Air Limited began as the successor to McKinnon Enterprises, a parts and modification facility working on the Grumman family of aircraft. After specializing in flying boats for over a decade, Viking switched focus in 1983 when De Havilland Inc. selected Viking as their primary spare parts manufacturer and distributor for the De Havilland DHC-2 Mk I Beaver, Mk III Turbo Beaver, and DHC-3 Single Otter aircraft.
The shift to De Havilland aircraft allowed Viking to develop its Manufacturing, Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul business, providing greater insight and enhanced workforce skills that transferred throughout the company and augmented Viking’s capabilities.
While developing into a specialized De Havilland support organization, Viking also utilized its full manufacturing capabilities to diversify its product offerings and undertake contract parts manufacture for Boeing, Bell Helicopter Textron, Lockheed Martin, and Bombardier Aerospace.
The supply contract with Bombardier began as spare parts manufacturing for the Beaver and Otter aircraft, and quickly grew in strength until Viking became a key supplier of structural sheet metal parts and assemblies for the DHC-6 Twin Otter. Viking’s growing expertise and support for the Twin Otter led to the announcement in 2005 that Bombardier was transferring the Customer Service Center for the type to Viking, allowing Viking to work directly with Twin Otter operators for supply of new parts and technical support.
Viking’s commitment to the De Havilland legacy has led to modernization of the aircraft product line through development of Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) for approved modifications to improve performance and update the aging airframes. Viking’s first venture into the modification arena began with the development of a Turbine Conversion for the DHC-2 Beaver aircraft, which not only replaced the radial R985 engine with a brand new Pratt & Whitney PT6A-34 turbine engine, but included structural modifications to reconfigure the airframe in line with the original De Havilland factory Turbo Beaver.
Viking’s turbine conversion for the Beaver is structurally identical to the De Havilland factory model and utilizes original production tooling to create “as new” Turbo Beaver aircraft that are factory supported with new manufactured parts. Viking holds the Type Certificates for the upgraded turbine engine installation, increased the gross weight (allowable load), and multiple other items that improve and modernize the Turbo Beaver for better all-around performance.
Building on the success of the Turbo Beaver, Viking expanded its line of turbine conversions to the DHC-3 Otter, which received certification in 2009. The modifications introduced to this proven workhorse improve performance and reliability while reducing operating costs and ensuring ease of maintenance.
Viking has developed other STCs for De Havilland aircraft, including installation of Pratt & Whitney PT6A-34 engines on the DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 300, gross weight increases for the Piston Beaver, Turbine Beaver, and Turbine Otter, and other Limited STC’s to cover specific customer requirements.
This continued and specialized support for the De Havilland legacy fleet culminated in 2006, when Viking acquired the Original Type Certificates (manufacturing rights) for all of the out-of-production De Havilland aircraft: DHC-1 Chipmunk, DHC-2 Beaver, DHC-2T Turbo Beaver, DHC-3 Otter, DHC-4 Caribou, DHC-5 Buffalo, DHC-6 Twin Otter, and DHC-7 Dash 7. As the Type Certificate holder, Viking became the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for these aircraft, naming Viking as the ultimate responsibility to operators for all aspects of the aircraft, from continuing airworthiness and parts support through design engineering and technical information.
After becoming the OEM, Viking conducted an operator survey to determine requirements and opportunities for product development. The largest fleet requirement revealed by the market study was represented by the Twin Otter group communicating the necessity for additional STOL aircraft to carry out mandatory operations where no other aircraft type would suit.
This overwhelming demand to continue supporting the Twin Otter encouraged Viking to put the extremely popular aircraft back into production, and in April 2007, Viking launched the Twin Otter Series 400 production program. The program took off where the De Havilland Series 300 Twin Otter program ended over twenty years ago; with Viking taking the original design and engineering data for the aircraft and incorporating over 800 changes to modernize the existing airframe.
The transition to aircraft manufacturer from parts manufacturer was a challenge for Viking and required a significant investment into the organization. To house the growth in the many different divisions of the company, Viking added a final aircraft assembly facility in Calgary, Alberta, and built a brand-new manufacturing facility at Victoria International Airport, where the corporate headquarters are still located.
After three years of development, the first Viking-built Series 400 Twin Otter, Manufacturer’s Serial Number (MSN) 845, took its inaugural flight in Calgary, Alberta on February 16th, 2010 and was delivered to launch customer Zimex Aviation in July 2010, just two weeks after Viking received Series 400 Production Program certification from Transport Canada. The initial flight and delivery of Viking’s first Series 400 Twin Otter were symbolic steps in a production program that would greatly impact the aerospace industry in Western Canada and improve Twin Otter operations around the globe.
With the Series 400 Twin Otter program well-established, Viking looked towards new opportunities with other iconic Canadian aircraft, and in 2016, acquired the Canadair Amphibious Aircraft program from Bombardier. The transfer of the Type Certificates made Viking the OEM responsible for the technical support and continuing airworthiness for Canadair CL-215, CL-215T & CL-415 aerial firefighters around the world.
In 2019, Viking acquired the Type Certificates for the Short Brothers SC.7 Skyvan, SD3-30 Sherpa and SD3-60 aircraft from Bombardier’s Belfast, Ireland operations. The acquisition was another strategic investment that demonstrated Viking’s continued focus on providing world-class product support services for legendary utility aircraft.
As the OEM for the legacy De Havilland Canada, Short Brothers, and Canadair amphibious aircraft fleets, Viking fully supports a diverse global operator base with factory spare part manufacturing, in-service engineering, technical support, technical publications, field service, warranty administration, and aircraft maintenance services.
In 2018, Viking added the Floyd Award for outstanding contributions to the Canadian Aerospace industry to its list of accolades. Currently, the operation employs over 500 personnel across two provinces in Western Canada as a subsidiary of Longview Aviation Capital, a prominent Canadian investment firm and leading investor in the Canadian aviation industry.
The Bridge to the Future
With customers around the world who already deploy the CL-415 to fight wildfires, Viking has come up with a bridge to the new production CL-515 in the form of an upgrade package – the CL-415EAF (Enhanced Aerial Firefighter). On a visit to partner
Bridger Aerospace in Belgrade, Montana, to deliver their first CL-415EAF, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Rob Mauracher explained. “The 415EAF program is working well, and we will be delivering another aircraft to Bridger in the next 45 days. So far, we have sold six to Bridger, one to Indonesia, and one to the government of Saskatchewan. We still have three aircraft available in the 415EAF program. The EAF is where we’ve addressed worldwide fleet obsolescence issues, and developed an avionics upgrade (AUP), which will allow us to offer the same flight deck as the 515. We are offering the AUP to our existing CL-415 customers around the world so they too can have the benefit of a common fleet for training and spares between the 415 and next generation 515. Still today we are making significant investments in the aircraft and the platform.
“We are making good progress in the U.S. with Bridger, so that’s a great partnership. They have done a lot of good air-attack work with their bird-dogs and supporting groups before, and now they’re moving into the tanker arena. They are very excited about this asset, especially with the EAF’s ability for dropping an incredible amount of water in initial attack and its precision dropping and low speed, high G abilities, at low altitude, which works well in their operating environment. Bridger is opening up the US market by taking two aircraft every year over the next three years. We all recognize that we must have a mixed bag of tools to fight fires, but the forte of the CL-515 and the CL-415EAF is its ability to dash a long distance out to a fire and start bombing it right away. They can keep it under control or get it under control until other assets, like helicopters, arrive.”
The CL-415EAF is a limited-edition upgrade of select CL-215 Series V airframes chosen specifically due to their low total times and outstanding maintenance history. These upgraded airframes are designed to failsafe FAR 25 certification criteria and include incorporation of Service Bulletins associated with the proven and certified CL-215T program.
The Enhanced Aerial Firefighter features a Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics suite, key system upgrades, and replacement of all obsolete parts. The new suite addresses existing equipment obsolescence, as well as current and future regulatory requirements. It includes GPS, TCAS II, TAWS, ADS-B Out, FMS, and Flight Director, and will be compatible with the new CL-515 First Responder.
The delivery of the first CL-415EAF to Bridger couldn’t come at a better time, as the U.S. faces a daunting fire season with ground crew deployment and fire camps hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which will severely limit close-proximity operations by fire crews who must maintain social distancing, making early initial attack by aircraft even more critical than in past seasons. “We are working through all the U.S. Forest Service certification items with Bridger,” said Mauracher. “Bridger has built a new hanger and made significant investments in preparation for the aircraft’s entry into service.”
Scooping aircraft still have an uphill climb in acceptance by federal land agencies versus traditional retardant bombers. “We’ve been working hard to get the scoopers recognized in the U.S., so this program is a big step for us,” Mauracher agreed.
But for existing customers, there is a catch. “There won’t be an upgrade from the CL-415 to the CL-515,” Mauracher said. “We are using the 11 aircraft in the CL-415EAF program as a bridge between the out-of-production CL-415 and the next generation, new production CL-515, putting our technology enhancements in that aircraft and using it as a proving platform to make sure that we are doing all these things correctly. We will offer the Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics upgrade, which will be used on the CL-515, to our existing CL-415 operators so that they can keep consistency in training and spares on the flight deck. Right now our launch customer for that program is Quebec, and we have their aircraft in-house to do the actual installation and certification. All of Quebec’s aircraft are going to have the avionics upgrade developed from the CL-415EAF program.”
Customer Support Is Job One
Viking is already supporting a substantial number of firefighting aircraft, and the need has never been greater. “With all the changes in the world, with our changing environment and its impact on global warming, there is definitely a place for this aircraft in the future,” Mauracher asserted. “Today we support approximately 2,600 in-service aircraft around the world. That’s our primary business, so we are very different from the normal OEM, like Boeing and Cessna, who are aircraft manufacturers first. We are actually a customer support entity first, but we build aircraft as a secondary business to support the ongoing lifecycle of the aircraft types that we offer. With Twin Otter production rates we’ve gone as high as 24 aircraft a year and as low as 12 a year, it all depends on how our sales look.
“Part of what we do at Viking is take out-of-production aircraft and modernize them. Our goal is to reduce the cost of maintenance, add in modern efficiencies and increase payload, but we make only value-added changes and improvements to the platform, allowing us to put them back into the market at a reasonable price. Spending billions of dollars on developing an all new aircraft is not our business model. Setting up the production line alone for the CL-515 is roughly a $300-$400 million expense.”
Mauracher highlighted the difficult climb they’ve had gearing up to support CL-415s. “When we inherited the [CL-415] program, so we had to reactivate the supply chain, had to reengage the vendor base and build confidence with them. We invested millions and millions of dollars not only in acquiring the program, but in building up our spares inventory, building up our support network. The customer support division has probably tripled in size, we’ve tripled the warehouse space we have, all in order to support these assets around the world.”
In addition to providing spares and customer service to their clients, Viking also hosts top-notch training and simulation facilities for their products. “The 415 simulator in Milan, Italy, is a partnership between Ansett Aviation and Pacific Sky at Malpensa Airport and is a certified Level D simulator,” said Mauracher. “We also do ground school and maintenance training for the CL-215, the CL-215T, the CL-415, and the CL-415EAF. We do simulator-based training in Calgary, which is our Twin Otter training center on a Level D simulator, which is the only float-equipped training device in the world that has been certified. And we use that training center for our CL-215 and CL-415 family of aircraft.”
The Wave of the Future
The CL-515 isn’t simply an evolution of the CL-415. The aircraft will offer operators a 12 to 15 percent increase in efficiency corresponding with a decrease in maintenance and operating costs, while its modular special mission design makes it something more, as Mauracher explained. “On the CL-515 we’ve done significant research and interviews with our customers, and they’re looking for a multi-use asset, that can be used outside of the fire season. This led us to offer the S.C.A.R (Self-Contained Aerial Reconnaissance) Pod, which is used on our Twin Otter Series 400 Guardian aircraft. This pod was developed by one of our partners out of Austria and the entire system can be removed within one hour so that the aircraft can become a full-fledged aerial tanker without damaging any of the sensors. The pod(s) are mounted on wing hard points and can also be transferred to other aircraft or helicopters in the operators fleet, thus reducing the cost to equip every aircraft with a separate system and saving operators and governments millions in purchasing expensive sensors for each aircraft. So when the aircraft is firefighting or down for annual maintenance the Pods can be transferred over to other aerial assets. Our present Guardian configuration includes a, search radar, Vidar system, datalink, EO/IR, direction finder and CartNav systems to name a few. This will allow the aircraft to be used all year round, dramatically expanding the operating envelope of the CL-515.”
The aircraft itself is very modular as well, featuring a spray boom for insect control or oil spill dispersant, an enlarged cargo door for disaster relief support, and the ability to add a “QC” quick change sensor or medevac suite, in addition to its firefighting configuration.
And the customers like what they see. “We are getting a lot of positive response. It’s a significant change in the aircraft, with a capacity increase to 7,000 liters, which makes the 515 a Type 2 air-tanker. We are also putting in a bunch of changes through production activities, changing the operating weights, updating all the systems, changing the manufacturing process to reduce corrosion in saltwater environments, so it has been a very positive response. They see this as a very important tool in the toolbox. It is probably the best initial attack asset out there. It is quite a formidable aircraft.”
Another plus: the CL-515 doesn’t need water to land. “We are certified to operate off of gravel strips, operating out of remote areas, and we don’t need long runways or infrastructure”, Mauracher added proudly.
“The CL-515 program is going well. We are working with several customers to lock down things. Obviously the COVID-19 pandemic has set us back a bit. Governments are focused on that and are not really focused on firefighting at this time. We hoped to make our formal launch announcement this summer, but that will slide into the fourth quarter now with all the governments around the world preoccupied with the COVID-19 virus. As fire season starts, they’ll probably focus back on that area, but right now everything’s fairly quiet with the lockdown.”
Viking is taking a global perspective on the available market. “We are looking all around the world right now. We have our Indonesian deal for six CL-515s, with one CL-415EAF. We are working with several customers in the European Union, with France and Spain, to try to put a package together for them. The Spaniards have mapped out all their reservoirs and lakes and have done a very thorough job of how to use the asset. Some sales will be fleet renewals because there are some ageing aircraft out there today. Indonesia, for instance, is a new customer for us, a launch customer. We expect the CL-515 will be a 25-year program. We are looking at approximately 100 aircraft. It is a low-volume production, and we’ve mastered low-volume production, so we are looking at 4 to 5 aircraft per year over a 20-year period, minimum,” said Mauracher optimistically.
So, despite the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting production schedules and new product launches, this world-class aerial firefighter will undoubtedly be making a splash at a wildfire near you very soon.
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