De Havilland Canada Dash 8 - Definition and Overview

A twin-turbo DHC-8 of Flybe on the ground at Bristol Airport, Bristol, England

The de Havilland Canada DHC-8, popularly the Dash 8, is a series of twin-turboprop airliners designed by de Havilland Canada in the early 1980s. They are now made by Bombardier Aerospace which purchased DHC from Boeing in 1992. Since 1996 the aircraft have been known as the Q Series turboprops.

The Dash 8 was the first of several new, efficient turboprop airliners developed during the 1980s. De Havilland Canada initiated development in of it 1980 as a replacement for the earlier four-engined Dash 7 turboprop airliner. First flight was in 1983, and the plane entered service in 1984.

DHC-8 landing at Bristol Airport

All Dash 8s delivered from the second quarter of 1996 (including all Series 400s) include an active Noise and Vibration Suppression (NVS) system designed to reduce cabin noise and vibration levels to near those of jet airliners. To emphasize their quietness, Bombardier has renamed the Dash 8 models as the Q Series turboprops (Q100, Q200, Q300, and Q400).

Bombardier has singled out the Q400 for more agressive marketing, launching a website [1] (http://www.q400.com) centred around the aircraft.

Variants

There are several variants of the Dash 8.

• Series 100: Original 37-40 passenger version that entered service in 1984
• Series 200: Series 100 with more powerful engines for improved performance
• Series 300: Stretched 50-56 passenger version that entered service in 1989
• Series 400: Stretched and improved 70-78 passenger version that entered service in 2000

External links

• Bombardier Q Series (http://www.bombardier.com/index.jsp?id=3_0&lang=en&file=/en/3_0/3_1/3_1_2.html)