One of Canada’s most historic aviation industry sites will be officially de-commissioned with a family-style event on Saturday. De Havilland Canada will say good-bye to its Downsview factory for good. Aircraft have been manufactured there for almost 100 years, first by the original De Havilland company, then Boeing and Bombardier and most recently by the most recent iteration of the famous brand revived by Longview Aviation Capital, which is the parent company of Viking Air. The revived company built Dash-8 Q400 turboprops there until earlier this year. It bought the type certificate from Bombardier shortly after Bombardier announced it was selling Downsview to developers three years ago.
The lease on the aircraft facilities is up in 2023 and De Havilland Canada hasn’t yet announced where the Q400 will be made or even if production will resume. The company has announced it will start production of the DHC-515 Firefighter, an updated version of he CL-415, in Calgary in coming years and it continues to make Twin Otters in Victoria and Calgary.