GippsAero’s beefy boxcar of an airplane may look ungainly, but once you climb in and fire up its 320-hp turbocharged Lycoming TIO-540, pull the flaps lever all the way up and push the throttle to 40 inches of manifold pressure, the big single leaps forward and soars into the sky where it belongs.
The GA8 Airvan is a blend of Australian outback strength and a gigantic load-hauling fuselage topped with a forgiving wing fat with lift, and it handles and performs like a much smaller airplane while offering great flexibility. The GA10 stretched turboprop variant of the Airvan is in flight-test and slated for certification this year, and AIN flew the piston-powered model to get a foretaste of the Rolls-Royce 250-powered aircraft now in the works.
The Airvan was designed to meet the needs of pilots flying in remote areas and on unimproved airstrips. For those who wonder why not just use a Cessna 206 for that mission, the answer is that operators wanted an airplane that handles like a 206 and costs about the same to operate but carries a lot more in a much larger cabin.
GippsAero, which is owned by India’s Mahindra Aerospace, announced early last month that it secured an order for an unspecified number of ISR-configured GA8 Airvans from California’s San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department. The Airvans will replace the department’s existing fleet of Cessna single-engine airplanes, and deliveries are scheduled to begin this month.
01/03/14 Matt Thurber/AINonline
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
The GA8 Airvan is a blend of Australian outback strength and a gigantic load-hauling fuselage topped with a forgiving wing fat with lift, and it handles and performs like a much smaller airplane while offering great flexibility. The GA10 stretched turboprop variant of the Airvan is in flight-test and slated for certification this year, and AIN flew the piston-powered model to get a foretaste of the Rolls-Royce 250-powered aircraft now in the works.
The Airvan was designed to meet the needs of pilots flying in remote areas and on unimproved airstrips. For those who wonder why not just use a Cessna 206 for that mission, the answer is that operators wanted an airplane that handles like a 206 and costs about the same to operate but carries a lot more in a much larger cabin.
GippsAero, which is owned by India’s Mahindra Aerospace, announced early last month that it secured an order for an unspecified number of ISR-configured GA8 Airvans from California’s San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department. The Airvans will replace the department’s existing fleet of Cessna single-engine airplanes, and deliveries are scheduled to begin this month.
01/03/14 Matt Thurber/AINonline
