7/18/2012

Fairchild Dornier 728Jet

Teal Market Forecaster Richard Aboulafia writes a monthly letter on his website. In his latest letter he asks about the fate of the Fairchild Dornier 728Jet Prototype. Well, here it is: it is inside a hangar of the german aerospace research agency  DLR in Goettingen.
Lately, I had the chance to see some specs - the OEW is lower than for the MRJ70 with more range. I guess if the 728Jet programme would not have collapsed and the family would have been extended with the 928Jet as planned there barely would have been a market for the Embraer EJet family left. But who will ever know...?
More information about the Fairchild Dornier 728/928 Jet programme can be found on Wikipedia.

If you want to see a (sort of) flying FD928Jet, look at the Sukhoi Superjet...the design similarities are not by conincidence...

3 comments:

  1. Wow !!! Another european jet lighter and more efficient than any other that nobody wants to buy ...

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  2. Lufthansa had 60 firm orders and 60 options. GECAS ordered 100. The problem was that the project was not funded properly and - additionaly - poor management. Good management maybe could have solved the financing issue, but if you have poor management, you are doomed anyway...

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  3. Embraer, Sukhoi and Bombardier pondered buying the program during its insolvency. They all had the bluebrints and specks in their possession to study. Ultimately they abandoned their interest and produced their own which externally they look alike and in the case of the C series the interior looks like a carbon copy right down to the windows and the 3+2 seating. The 728 was at the time the most advanced plane of its kind with a very efficient wing that didn't need winglets and full fly by wire with no mechanical backup. Alas

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