Dubai air show debutant General Atomics AeroTec Systems (GA-ATS) expects next year to roll out its first two Do228 NXTs, the latest version of the venerable twin-turboprop, as the modernisation programme gathers momentum.
Florian Rohe, managing director at the Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany-based manufacturer, says the first roll-out will come in the second quarter, ahead of its maiden air show appearance at ILA Berlin in June.
“We are on short final for having the first aircraft released with the second in the pipeline,” he says. “We have resolved all the major hurdles in terms of ramping up the supply chain again.”
Although the first NXT will be retained by the company, the initial customer aircraft will be handed over in the summer, says Rohe, who declines to identify the operator, other than to say they are European.
No certification of the modernised variant is required, he says, with the changes classed as minor modifications.
While GA-ATS has addressed obsolescence issues on the Do228 and brought wing manufacturing in-house, it has retained key systems such as the twin-turboprop’s Honeywell TPE331-10 engines.
Rohe says alternative powerplants were analysed but the company concluded that “there is no product available on the market that produces better economics than the TPE331”.
GA-ATS is a sister company of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the manufacturer of the MQ-9 unmanned air vehicle, which is powered by another variant of the TPE331.
That engine is equipped with a FADEC system and Rohe says “we are looking at adapting that as well for our aircraft”.
GA-ATS intends to build five Do228 NXTs each year, and Rohe says the first five years of production are sold out.
Additional tentative commitments will, if firmed, extend the backlog into a sixth year at least, he adds.
While the airframer has yet to identify any customers for the NXT, Rohe says the split between governmental and civil operators is 70-30.
It offers the twin-turboprop in multiple configurations including cargo, surveillance, special missions and passenger transport.
General Atomics acquired the Do228 programme when it bought Ruag Aerospace Services in 2021, subsequently rebranding the unit to GA-ATS.
