Dornier 228

The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. About 245 such aircraft were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 1983, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) bought a production licence and manufactured 125 aircraft in Kanpur, India. Swiss manufacturer RUAG acquired the rights of the aircraft from Fairchild in 2002, and introduced the Dornier 228 NG variant in 2009. The fuselage, wings, and tail assembly were manufactured by HAL in Kanpur, and were transported to Oberpfaffenhofen, where RUAG carried out the final assembly. It used the same airframe as its predecessor with a new five-blade propeller, improved avionics, glass cockpit, and was capable of flying a longer range. In late 2017, HAL announced the introduction of a new civilian variant Hindustan-Dornier 228 for operations in India. In 2020, RUAG sold the Dornier 228 to AeroTec Systems, a subsidiary of US-based General Atomics. General Atomics announced plans to resume production of a new version Do228 NXT.