Operational History
Three prototypes, TAC 01 - TAC 03 (Test aircraft) were built. TAC 01 was completed with equipment, the second prototype was a complete fuselage in an unfinished stage of installation. TAC 03 was just a fuselage for structural tests. It was brought to Dresden before the insolvency of Fairchild Dornier.
The auction sold (besides many other things) also the prototypes.
- The DLR (the German aerospace center) bought TAC 01 for €19,000. It was needed for cabin testing, which meant the DLR just needed the fuselage. After deciding it was too complicated to remove the wings correctly, they were cut off. Therefore the fuselage went to the DLR research facilities with "stubby wings" of 6m span.
- A former Fairchild Dornier employee bought TAC 02 for €6,000, but had problems with transporting to a new location. The prototype currently still stands on the former firm area of Dornier in Oberpfaffenhofen.
- TAC 03 remained in Dresden.
Read more about this topic: Fairchild Dornier 728 Family
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)