Regional Airliners #4-Fairchild Donier 380

[Herman]

A really remarkable regional airliner and the only airliner that I know of that was produced both as a turbo prop and jet without any major modifications.
This was accomplished by the design of its "supercritical " wing which allowed the aircraft in its jet configuration to cruise at Mach 0.76 and altitudes up to 35,000ft.

Inter Island Airways serves the south pacific islands of American Samoa and Tonga.
This flight is from Pago Pago on the Island of Tutuila, to Vava'u on the island of Tonga.











On short final at Vava'u, Tonga.


As its name suggests Midwest Connect serves smaller cities in midwest America.


Notice the absence of any wing sweep.


Central Mountain Air Is a regiomal feeder airline and operates mainly from smaller towns and cities in British Colombia Canada. This fight is from Prince George to Kamloops BC.






At the ramp in Kamloops, BC. Notice the AC Jazz Dash8 has just touched down.


Thse British Airways 328's are operated by Sun Air of Denmark.
This flight is from Aarhus, Denmark to Norwich, England.










Herman

[christrott]

Ahh, the good 'ole Doinker/Doinkerjet.

It was funny, when I worked for Air Wisconsin we had the Doinkers flying up into the Mountains and were much more capable than the DHC-8's (pre-Q series) that had been flying those flights during the summer, but unfortunately, they built by Daimler, Daimler-Chrysler, and Fairchild (and had builder plates to prove it). Sadly, financial problems with both companies in the early 2000's resulted in ZW retiring the fleet en-masse along with most other US operators, leaving only a small number of 328JET aircraft operating in the US. They were a fun aircraft to work around though.

[Herman]

Hi Christrott;

Thank you for your comments.

A couple of other things I wanted to mention about this aircraft.

When taxying and because of it's narrow main gear track, great care has to be excersized when taxying. No more than 5knts. around corners.
Also the aircraft, at least these models, are greatly overpowered, so take it easy with the throttles on TO.

Herman

[christrott]

I've not found that to be a problem with the PAD aircraft operating at normal weights. Then again, these aircraft don't use 100% power on takeoff, usually more like 92%-95% power, but it's limited by FADEC so it's hard to do with a non-FADEC model.

[Herman]

Chris....seeing that you worked for Air Wisconsin...you might be interested in this.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nofHK7UJr94

Herman

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

AIR WISCONSIN ....

HMMM .... I think I remember Garry RUSSEL painted one of the DMFS BAC ONE-ELEVEN's in a variation of their livery .... as I recall !

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[christrott]

Herman, unfortunately that link doesn't work, it takes me to a "My Videos" page with nothing on it.

[Herman]

OK Chris, I have corrected that link above. It should work now.

Herman

[christrott]

Yep, back when Air Wisconsin was just getting started. A few years after that was made, they received their first BAe-146 and truely transitioned into the jet age. They were then brought onboard as a United Express operator, and unfortunately, much of their uniqueness was stripped as they were the only non-owned Express operator that was not allowed to continue operating its own network and have aircraft painted in its own scheme. It was that issue that led to their near demise in the early 2000's, the split from United, and the almost complete exit of Air Wisconsin from its home state.

[Herman]

Interesting Chris, thank you for that information.

I was able to obtain that video from Dehavilland many years ago.

I've always enjoyed the various promotional films that the airlines used to make.

Herman

[christrott]

I wish they still made them for public consumption instead of just internal viewing. Short commercials and videos (like the recent BA "Why We Fly") just don't have the same kind of impact as a 15-minute mini-documentary like that.

[garryrussell]

Just out of interest

Although not intended for production, the Nene Vikng and Tay Viscount were not highly modified for jet power. The Nene Viking was the Worlds fisrt pure jet airliner/transport.