New Business Turboprops 2016

Perhaps it is appropriate that things do not move very fast in the turboprop segment. Consider this: the Dornier Seastar first flew in 1984, was certified in 1991 and apparently will at last enter production later this year. Or that Cessna, after dipping its toes in the pressurized turboprop single market for the better part of a decade, finally decided to jump into the pool this year—with the Denali—and likely will have an aircraft to customers by 2020. Or India’s NAL Saras. After three decades of development, two flying prototypes and reportedly nearly half a billion dollars, the Indian government finally decided to pull the financial feeding tube and kill it. Perhaps at one time there was a market for something that looked like a Hawker 125 with pusher propellers, but that time was probably the 1950s.

No, the turboprop market is plodding, deliberate; evolution in slow motion. More than 50 years after the King Air was introduced, companies are still finding ways not only to tweak the aircraft but also to improve performance significantly, and in ways that make economic sense. In Texas, a company wants to put the Grumman Mallard, an aircraft that first flew in 1946, back into production with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34s.