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David Curtis strolled through an empty hangar near Calgary International Airport on Monday, looking out at the vast space and the promise ahead for his company.

“In another three months, this place will be full of planes and people. It will be pretty cool,” he said.

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Outside the hangar in northeast Calgary, a series of hulking yellow and red water bombers are docked on the ground, awaiting a pending retrofit.

The chief executive of Viking Air Ltd. is making plans for a major lift-off in the coming weeks.

The Victoria-based firm, along with its sister firm Longview Aviation Asset Management, announced Monday the first phase of plans to turn Calgary into a centre for expanding its amphibious firefighting aircraft.

The companies are looking to hire 150 people in Calgary this spring and summer for a program to upgrade a series of older Canadair CL-215 firefighting planes that it’s acquired.

Known as “Super Scoopers,” these unique Canadian water bomber aircraft were manufactured in the 1980s. They have the ability to swoop down to lakes or oceans and scoop up 5,455 litres of water in a dozen seconds that can then be dumped on a fire.