De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter operators are to help define cockpit avionics and other features for the planned Series 400 version to be assembled by British Columbia-based Viking Air.
Viking Air president and chief executive David Curtis says go-ahead could come within the next "three to six months" assuming sufficient deposits from the right "mix of operators and regions". From launch in early 2007, the company says it expects it will take 24 months from cutting the first metal to delivering the first aircraft.
To keep recurring costs down, and to ensure the Series 400 is available at competitive prices, Curtis says the focus is on "keeping it simple".
The last of 844 Twin Otters was delivered from DHC's Downsview, Toronto site in 1989. The Series 400 will feature more powerful Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34/35 turboprops, advanced materials such as a modern composite nose section and a revised cockpit.
"We're going to certify two cockpit systems, and will ask the customers to help refine what will be offered," says Curtis, adding that the baseline package will be based on an updated version of the current cockpit while the more advanced "B" package will be a glass cockpit.
The option results from earlier surveys conducted by Viking, which revealed a roughly 50:50 split between customers.
Customers will also help define cockpit contents and equipment suppliers. Curtis adds that a "C" package will be offered for those specifying alternative avionics, available to be fitted by an independent completion centre - but customers "will be on their own for that", he says.
Viking already builds complete spare wing assemblies for the Twin Otter, and owns the type design and certificates relating to all the de Havilland Canada lines from the DHC-1 Chipmunk to the DHC-7. It has "about 80%" of the tooling for the Twin Otter airframe, says Curtis.
"For the balance we have the original DHC tool drawings and alignment data for the main fuselage boxing jig," Curtis adds.
The original tool was cut up by Boeing during the period when it owned de Havilland Canada in the 1980s.
Source: Flight International
