FedEx has committed to buying at least fifty of them.
I'm guessing that the big deal is that the Cessna-408 will be sized to take three LD3 cargo containers. I don't know if the Twin Otter can do that (and I don't have the time to go looking).
The last Cessna SkySomething, the "SkyCatcher" was a miserable failure. I wish them luck with this one.
Unlikely, an LD3 is 64” tall and the DHC-6-100 shows a cabin height of 59”. The base width is 61.5”, widening to 79”, the cabin is 52.5”, widening to 63.2”. Biggest door opening is 50” x 58”.
ReplyDeleteBasically, no LD unit would fit.
Cessna says three LD3s. http://cessna.txtav.com/en/turboprop/skycourier
ReplyDeleteCP88, and that's likely why the Twin Otter was out of the running. FedEx probably wants to load containers and reduce the load/unload time.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if these birds will fly for FedEx main or FedEx Feeder.
The Twin Otter has it's fuel cells beneath the floor so the cabin is not very tall. I'm 5'6" and I had to stoop quite a bit in the back. I don't think anyone at Viking is losing sleep, they can't build Twin Otters fast enough to meet demand.
ReplyDeleteAl_in_Ottawa
Doesn't FedEx have a feeder fleet of Cessna Caravan's already? Keeping it in the Cessna "family" may make sense. Looks like a good job for a Short 300 though if you want to load LD3s.
ReplyDeleteYes, but the Short's been out of production sine the '90s.
ReplyDeleteThe Twin Otter was out of production too for 20 years, but Viking restarted production once demand was there. So someone restarting production of the Short 300 isn't out of the question. Unless Bombardier destroyed the tooling when they took over Short. In which case, uhm, yeah.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Cessna has more cred at being able to deliver aircraft than any resurrected Short. Or Viking, for that matter -- Viking can't make more than two dozen aircraft per year in its tiny facility. If FedEx wants 50 of these things, even if the Twin Otter got a cabin stretch to fit the containers Viking wouldn't be able to deliver them in any timely fashion given their current production limits and customer order backlog. And expanding production to fit the needs of a single customer is Bad Business...