De Havilland Canada conducted the first flight of the avionics upgrade program for its CL-215T, CL-415, and CL-415 EAF. The operation took place on May 30, 2022, in Abbotsford, British Columbia.
The new avionics package integrates Collins Aerospace Pro Line Fusion flight instruments. Jean-Philippe Côté, vice president of programs at De Havilland Canada, said the manufacturer is «thrilled with the success of the test flight. We look forward to Transport Canada’s certification in the coming months.
Chris Conway, Collins Aerospace’s director of business development, added: «We are proud to partner with De Havilland on this initiative. Our Pro Line Fusion system provides essential safety, efficiency, and predictability improvements to firefighting.»
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This avionics suite has been designed and customized for firefighting missions. It will also be installed on the recently launched DHC-515 Firefighter aircraft. Among the advantages of the Pro Line Fusion is commonality: the De Havilland CL-215T, CL-415, CL-415 EAF, and DHC-515 aircraft with this suite installed can be operated by the same crew. Customers will thus be able to have pilots move seamlessly between aircraft. «We believe the ability to operate common cockpits across our family of aircraft is a significant benefit to our customers,» Côté noted.
Cascade Aerospace was charged with carrying forward the implementation of the program. Kevin Lemke, its executive vice president, and COO said that this first flight «is a major breakthrough for the program». Regarding the development of this technology, the executive added that «the joint work we have done with De Havilland Canada and Collins Aerospace during the last two years is in the final stretch. We only need to finish the tests and move forward with certification».
