Quietly

The Dash

Does It

De Havilland Canada’s re cently developed Dash 7 50passenger STOL turboprop airliner is being promoted by its manufacturers as the answer to the problems that will be faced by operators of regional commuter services up to the year 2000 and beyond.

The aircraft has been de signed to meet pressing mod ern concerns such as noise and air pollution, fuel shortages, and airport construction costs in the manufacturer’s words, ‘to reconcile the apparently

conflicting requirements for a

supremely quiet, non

polluting, fuel-conscious,

economic-to-operate aircraft,

with only limited airfield size demands’.

Noise levels certificated for the Dash 7 are the lowest for any current airliner, according to the manufacturers.

The Dash 7 has four-bladed Hamilton Standard PF24 pro pellers, made of fibreglass and specially designed for the air craft. Measuring 3.4 m tip to tip, they are long for an aircraft of this size. The extra length means that at cruise speed they rotate at around 1100 rpm, just under half the speed of most modern light aircraft. Since propeller noise accounts for more than half of all aircraft

noise, this measure drastically cuts the Dash 7’s noise ‘foot

print’.

Dash 7’s relatively low operating costs are to be attributed chiefly to its four Pratt & Whitney PT6-50 engines. They give it a fuel con sumption per seat-kilometre lower than any aircraft in its class, according to de Har villand Canada.

The plane’s STOL character istics allow it to operate from airfields about half the length of those used by current turbo prop intrastate feederliners.

This is an advantage in terms

both of operational flexibility

and airfield construction costs.

Its runway requirement for take-off is 701 m, and for land ing 655 m. The Dash 7 is priced at about SA4 million.

By early June the Dash 7 had

been sold to 17 customers in nine countries. Orders and options totalled 46 aircraft.

GAF’s Nomad...starting to look like the Australian aircraft industry’s biggest seller to date

De Havilland’s Dash ... de signed to meet the demands of performance and today’s environmental concerns