Air Transport

Modification opens Dash 8 door for smokejumpers and air drops

Canada’s Field Aviation has certificated an air-operable cargo door modification for special-mission and maritime-patrol variants of the Bombardier Dash 8, allowing air-dropping of paratroops, smokejumpers,emergency equipment and supplies.
The modification, principally a fuselage-mounted air defl ector,will be installed by Toronto-based Field in three Dash 8-300s for the Swedish coastguard, to allow air dropping of liferafts. The air-operable
door will also be certifi cated on the short-fuselage Dash 8-100 and -200 and offered for retrofit,says vice-president, business development,Joar Gronlund.
Field says the manually operated,inward-opening plug-type door can be raised with no adverse aerodynamic effects at all altitudes and speeds up to normal operating,with an optimum drop speed of 105kt (195km/h). Gronlund expects the update to appeal to coastguard,firefighting, customs patrol and search-and-rescue operators.
The first of the Swedish Dash 8s has been delivered by Bombardier to Field for modifi cation, Gronlund says, and will be handed over to the coastguard in the second quarter of 2007 after integration and validation of the mission system.