Cessna 208

Cessna 208 Caravan
D-FALK landing at Günterode / Heiligenstadt airfield
Type:	Feeder aircraft
Design country:	United States
Manufacturer:	Cessna / Textron Aviation
First flight:	December 9, 1982
Commissioning:	1984
Number of pieces:	Approx. 2500 (as of 2015)

The Cessna 208 Caravan is a single-engine turboprop passenger and cargo aircraft ( feeder aircraft ) made by the US manufacturer Textron Aviation without a pressurized cabin .

history

Development work began in the early 1980s and the first prototype flew on December 9, 1982. The FAA approval took place in October 1984, customer deliveries from February 1985. In October 1998 the 1000th aircraft was delivered to Tropic Air .

Cessna 208B Grand Caravan

The large wheels of the 208 also allow take-offs and landings on unpaved runways. The versions 208B Super Cargomaster (first flight 1986) and 208B Grand Caravan (first flight 1990), which have been extended by 1.22 meters, offer a larger amount of cargo or space for up to 14 passengers (caravan: 9 passengers). The cargo versions Cargomaster (40 units built) and Super Cargomaster (260 units built) can carry 1587 kg (Cargomaster) or 1933 kg (Super Cargomaster) cargo. The Super and Grand versions were equipped with the more powerful Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114A engine. The freight company FedEx operates a fleet of 309 aircraft of this type in North and Central America (as of the end of 2008). From 1997 the 208-675 replaced the standard version, which also received the more powerful drive. The manufacturer Soloy offers a conversion of the 208 with two PT6D-114A turbines, which together deliver 991 kW of power and together drive the propeller. This 1.8 m longer version is called the Pathfinder 21 and had its first flight in 1995. She received approval in 1997.

Cessna 208 Amphibian

The military version U-27A (called C-98 in Brazil) is used by many air forces as a troop transport and as an ambulance, cargo and feeder aircraft. There is also a variant as a seaplane (amphibian). Since the beginning of 2009, a total of eleven aircraft have been deployed as AC-208s in Iraq's air force. These are equipped with the movable STAR sensor system (TV and IR) under the fuselage and partly (AC-208B) with Hellfire missiles under the wings and radar warning receivers.

The latest version: Grand Caravan EX with Belly-Pod

Military users

•  Afghanistan
•  Bahamas
•  Bangladesh
•  Brazil
•  Chile
•  Ivory Coast
•  Djibouti
•  Iraq
•  Jordan
•  Lebanon
•  Liberia
•  Colombia
•  Mexico
•  South Africa
•  United Arab Emirates

Incidents

From the first flight in 1982 to March 2020, the Cessna 208 suffered 236 total write-offs of aircraft. In 138 of them, 468 people were killed. Examples:

• On September 29, 1985, a Cessna 208 ( aircraft registration number N551CC ) full of parachutists suffered an engine failure shortly after take-off near Jenkinsburg , Georgia . The machine tumbled to the ground from a height of 300 feet . All 17 occupants of the Cessna were killed. Significant amounts of water were found in the fuel during the accident investigation. The contamination was attributed to improper storage of the fuel tanks from which the machine was refueled. In addition to the contaminated fuel, an excess of the maximum take-off weight and an improper weight distribution in the machine were found. As of April 2020, it is the most serious incident involving a Cessna 208 (see also aircraft accident near Jenkinsburg ) .

• On March 4, 1997, an Air Georgian (C-FESJ) Cessna 208B Super Cargomaster launched in Hamilton had an accident while approaching Barrie-Orillia Lake Simcoe Airport (Ontario). The pilot, the only occupant on the cargo flight, was killed. The plane could be repaired.

• On October 10, 2001, a PenAir Cessna 208 (N9530F) had an accident on the way from Dillingham ( Alaska ) to King Salmon , shortly after take-off due to icing . All ten people on board the aircraft died (see also PenAir flight 350 ) .

• On January 17, 2004, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan of the Georgian Express (C-FAGA) crashed onto the icy surface of Lake Erie shortly after taking off from Pelee Island for a flight to Windsor . The causes of the accident were icy wings and an overload of 576 kg or 15 percent, after which the buoyancy aids were retracted , resulting in a stall. All ten people on board were killed in the accident (see also Georgian Express Flight 126 ) .

• On December 31, 2017, a Nature Air Cessna 208B Grand Caravan ( aircraft registration TI-BEI ) was flown into a hill in a mountainous area near the coastal town of Punta Islita, Costa Rica and burned out. All 12 inmates, including 10 foreign tourists, were killed.

• On September 11, 2019, a Cessna 208 Caravan I (D-FIDI) crashed into a field near Zehdenick in Brandenburg for an unexplained cause during the approach. The aircraft took off from the nearby Gransee airfield, which serves as a base for parachutists and from which parachute jumps are offered commercially. On the accident flight there were 14 parachutists and the pilot in the machine, but the athletes had left the aircraft as planned before the crash. According to initial findings, the pilot was killed. The investigations are ongoing (as of September 2019).

Technical specifications

View into the cockpit of a 208B

Parameter	Caravan	Grand Caravan
crew	1	1
Passengers	9	14th
length	11.46 m	12.67 m
span	15.88 m	15.88 m
height	4.32 m	4.32 m
Cabin size h; b; l	1.37 m; 1.63 m; 3.88 m	1.37 m; 1.63 m; 5.10 m
Wing area	26 m²	26 m²
payload	1360 kg	1587 kg
Empty mass	1725 kg	2250 kg
Max. Takeoff mass	3310 kg	3970 kg
Max. Cruising speed	340 km / h (at 3000 m altitude) 295 km / h (at 6000 m altitude)	337 km / h (at 3000 m altitude) 295 km / h (at 6000 m altitude)
Top speed	344 km / h	341 km / h
Service ceiling	7620 m	7620 m
Range with full tanks and without cargo	1797 km	1667 km
Engines	1 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114 with 450 kW (600 PS) and 3-bladed, adjustable Hartzell propeller	1 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114A with 505 kW (675 PS) and 3-bladed, adjustable Hartzell propeller
List price	$ 2 million	$ 2.5 million

See also

• List of aircraft types

Web links

Commons : Cessna 208  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Type certification of the Cessna Model 208 - EASA-TCDS-A.226 (PDF; 74 kB)
• Cessna 208 - Technical Data (airliners.net)
• Cessna Caravan - Cessna's Caravan website

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Green, Claudio Müller: Airplanes of the World, 1983/84 . Werner Classen Verlag, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3 7172 0323 1 , pp. 60-61.
2. ↑ Kate Sarsfield: Cessna approaching 2,500 Caravan delivery milestone. In: Flightglobal.com. October 6, 2015, accessed on October 12, 2015 (English): "Cessna is preparing to deliver the 2,500th Caravan this quarter, to an Alaskan charter operator which was its original launch customer for the single-engined turboprop - Bering Air." 
3. ↑ Soloy Dual Pac (Soloy) ( Memento from February 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ FlugRevue March 2010, p. 53, Armed Caravan
5. ↑ Equipping the Combat Caravan with a Hellfire missile  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
6. ^ Cessna 208 accident statistics , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 16, 2020.
7. ↑ accident report Cessna 208 N551CC , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 30 April 2020th
8. ^ Accident report Cessna 208B C-FESJ , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 30, 2020.
9. ^ Accident report Cessna 208 N9530F , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 17, 2020.
10. ↑ Accident report Cessna 208B C-FAGA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 30, 2020.
11. ↑ Accident report Cessna 208B TI-BEI , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 11, 2018.
12. ↑ Twelve dead in a small plane crash in Costa Rica ofr.at, December 31, 2017, accessed January 1, 2018.
13. ^ Accident report Cessna 208 D-FIDI , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 19, 2019.