De Havilland Canada Dash 7 - Operational History

Operational History

Development started in 1972 and the prototype first flew on March 27, 1975. Testing went smoothly, and the first delivery took place to Rocky Mountain Airways on February 3, 1978. The Dash 7 enabled Rocky Mountain Airways to operate scheduled passenger air service from Denver into the Avon STOLport in Colorado which was controlled by the airline. The Avon STOLport was located in a mountain valley in close proximity to the Vail ski resort. Another close-in ski resort airfield served by Rocky Mountain Airways with Dash 7 flights from Denver was Steamboat Springs Airport in Colorado. With a relatively short runway length of 4,452 feet and an airfield elevation of 6,882 feet, the Dash 7 was well suited for operations from this airport located in the Rocky Mountains.

One hundred Dash 7 turboprops were delivered by 1984, when the production line was put on hold in favour of the Dash 8. Another 13 were delivered between 1984 and 1988, when the production lines were removed when Boeing bought the company.

The original Series 100 represents the vast majority of the aircraft delivered, and came in two models; the -102 passenger version and -103 combi with an enlarged cargo door. These were followed by the Series 110 which met British CAA requirements, including the -110 and -111, and finally the Series 150 which included additional fuel tankage and an improved interior in the -150 and -151. There were plans for a Series 200 with the new PT6A-50/7 engines which improved hot-and-high power, but these plans were shelved when Boeing ended production of the design.

The mixture of features on the Dash 7 met with limited commercial success. Most turboprop operators used them as feederliners into large airports, where the STOL performance wasn't considered important. In comparison to other feederliners, the Dash 7's four engines required twice the maintenance of a twin-engine model, thereby driving up operational costs. Finally, those airports that did require a high performance STOL operation were generally small and well served by the Twin Otters; had the airport needed a larger plane to serve its customer base, they would have built larger runways. One exception to this was operations at London City Airport which, upon opening in 1987, was capable of handling few other aircraft types besides the Dash 7 due to its relatively short runway as well as steep approach.

The Dash 7 also gained a number of military orders. The first of these was for two aircraft for the Canadian Armed Forces, who needed them to transport high ranking passengers and freight around Europe. These aircraft received the CF designation CC-132 and were delivered to No.412 Squadron at Lahr, in West Germany.

The United States Army operates several Dash 7 aircraft as surveillance platforms with the designation EO-5C (RC-7B before 2004) under the Airborne Reconnaissance Low program.

Transport Canada operates a single DHC-7-150IR aircraft to conduct maritime surveillance, pollution and ice patrols as part of the Transport Canada National Aerial Surveillance Program (N.A.S.P.). The aircraft's home base is Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. During the summer months this aircraft conducts patrols throughout the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and Greenland. During the fall and winter months this aircraft conducts patrols of the Great Lakes and east or west coasts of Canada as required.

The design of a much more "conventional" twin-engine design commenced at de Havilland in 1978, resulting in the extremely popular Dash 8. The DHC-7 production line eventually delivered 113, of which six have been lost and one scrapped. Many of the rest remain in service.