Air force seeks plane suitable to jump from

[highfly 0]

Anyone got any suggestions or offerings of a decent Jump Plane for the RNZAF?


http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2407060/Air-force-seeks-plane-suitable-to-jump-from

www.myspace.com/durtymac

[raceface 0]

"fitted with a large side door that allows tandem jumpers and parachutists loaded with equipment to jump out safely. They also have to be able to exit without hitting aircraft surfaces, especially the tail plane"
isn't tailgate better solution than "large side door"??

my pictures

[piisfish 135]

that's what they need
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Arava^

that.. or an An-2

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[raceface 0]

and what about this (which is in fact antonov too)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_M-28

my pictures

[raceface 0]

cargo jump from An-28

my pictures

[riggerrob 558]

Suggestions go in this order:
Single-engine:
PAC 750 - made in NZ, but a few wingsuiters have hit the tail.

Cessna Caravan - long service, and only a few idiots have hit tail plane

Quest Kodiak - new design with only one year's service, but one vidiot managed to hit tail plane. Quest engineers are working to redesign floater steps to reduce risk.

The only way to completely eliminate the risk of tail strikes is a T-tail (Pilatus PC-12) or ramp under the tail.

Ramps are limited to twins of Skyvan or larger size.
Skyvan
An-28
CASA 212
dHC-4 Cariboo and bigger

To solve the same dilemma, the Canadian Air Farce leases Twin Otters and CASA 212.
US, Dutch, German, etc. armies solve the problem by sending paratroopers to train at Skydive Arizona. Some military training dives are done from Twin Otters, but all the heavy equipment drops are done from Skyvans. Other Southern USA DZs (eg. Perris Valley, California) often lease their Skyvans to the US Army Freefall School in Yuma, Arizona.

Another HUGE issue is matching the size of the airplane to the size of the mission. C-130s are really only financially viable when transporting large numbers of paratroopers short distances or small numbers of special forces long distances. For short range training missions, C-130s are "too capable" and too expensive, ergo the RNZAF would be better off leasing something like Skyvans.

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

Didn't the company that recently put Twin Otters back into production actually buy the rights to all of DHC's designs, not just the Twin Otter?

Or am I mistaken??

If I'm not mistaken, then, couldn't they, in theory, put the Carabiou back into production too? Although, I'm not sure I'd like to get into a "scare-a-bou" again.

[brettski74 0]

Viking Air is the company producing Twin Otters, now. They own the type certificate for the DHC aircraft up to the Dash-7, including the Caribou, however, I don't know that they've announced any plans to restart production of anything other than the DHC-6. I believe that they're only providing parts and support for the other types.

[riggerrob 558]

Viking has hinted that new-production DHC-5 buffalo would be good replacements for the old Buffalos flown by Canadian air Force Search and Rescue Squadrons, but they are competing with the Italian G-222 (aka Spartan) and an Indonesian airplane that is also a twin turboprop.

Don't hold your breath on re-opening the Buffalo production line unless our next prime minister is elected in Viking's riding.