Cessna SkyCourier

[Pacqing]

I see the Cessna SkyCourier did its first flight a few days ago. It has PT6-65s so lots of power. What are peoples thought on this machine, will it replace the DHC-6 in some operations?

[propfeather]

Looks like an improvement on the twot in a few aspects and could be a plausible replacement for strip to strip flying. But it's not STOL and needs over triple the runway length. Also - skis? floats? tundra tires? Those are the bread and butter for the ol twot.

[porcsord]

It will be the same as the Caravan: Boring but economical. It will start off doing pavement to pavement, but then will steadily get more and more capable and bury the twin otter in all but the most specialized places. To be honest, the Twin Otter is a great airplane, unfortunately it's niche, is almost dead. It sacrifices so much to do what it does, it won't stand a chance against this monster.

PS

[all_ramped_up]

Looks like the lovechild of a PZL M-28 and the Dornier 228 to me.

[bring me the horizon]

The twin will always have its place in aviation. There's a reason you still see single otters and caravans at the same operator. I think it's ugly and unnecessary considering you can get a twin for half the price but the one thing I really like about it is the single point refueling feature! This is obviously a pavement princess

[Ki-ll]

It is ironic but today is Twin Otter’s birthday. First flight was on 20th of May 1965.

C3F908F1-E557-438F-9B9D-CFA1BF2B0B21.jpeg (190.08 KiB) Viewed 3360 times

[Heliian]

The only replacement for a twin otter is another twin otter.

The "skycourier" is exactly like it's name implies, a plane for couriers.

Cheap, ugly, economical and disposable.

It really looks like a chinese knock off twotter.

[TrilliumFlt]

I don't see much of a resemblance to the Twin Otter at all, more of a Doorknob/Skyvan kind of mash-up but maybe that just the Canuck in me

[Heliian]

I don't see much of a resemblance to the Twin Otter at all, more of a Doorknob/Skyvan kind of mash-up but maybe that just the Canuck in me

You're right! depending on the angle you look at it, it just looks like a mashup of them all.

Textron just has no original ideas I guess. Their "denali" is just a pc-12.

[PanEuropean]

The Cessna SkyCourier offers significant advantages over the Twin Otter for operators who don't need the short-field take-off runs of the Twin Otter.

The main advantages of the SkyCourier vs. the Twin Otter are cruise speed, payload, and range. The cargo door on the SkyCourier is also much larger than the cargo door on a Twin Otter, although that's not an operational advantage unless the operator wants to load ULDs. The main advantages of the Twin Otter vs. the SkyCourier are short landing distances and short takeoff ground rolls, and the ability to fit various types of landing gear.

The price of the two aircraft appears to be similar.

It will be interesting to see what the performance figures are for takeoff distance and landing distance at lower weights. It will also be very interesting to see what take-off distances to a 35 foot height are in the event of an engine failure at V1. The SkyCourier has 1,100 SHP engines vs. the Twin Otter's 620 SHP (flat rated) engines. The MTOW difference between the two will be a much lower percentage than the engine power difference, which means that when operating under tighter regulatory schemes, the SkyCourier might be able to depart airports where the Twin Otter is constrained by single engine takeoff gradients.

Cessna is advertising a takeoff field length of 3,300 feet at MTOW, but it's not clear from their advertising data if that is take-off distance to clear a 50 foot obstacle or accelerate-stop distance. If it is accelerate-stop distance, which I suspect it is, then that's not that much different than a Series 300/400 Twin Otter, which has an accelerate-stop distance of 2,600 feet at MTOW in ISA conditions. It's also worth noting that Cessna has not yet published the MTOW of the SkyCourier. The 2,600 foot ASD of the Twin Otter is at 12,500 pounds MTOW - if the SkyCourier has a higher MTOW, it's reasonable to assume that the Cessna's accelerate-stop distance at 12,500 pounds will be lower than 3,300 feet.

Michael