Originally Posted by Cave Troll
...I would say the van is a bush plane and a good one and yes it is both better looking and faster than the twotter...
There is no doubt that the Cessna Caravan is a very useful and commercially successful aircraft. Cessna certainly hit the ball over the fence when they designed the Caravan.
It's not really possible to say that a Caravan or a Twin Otter is the best aircraft for a specific purpose unless you first assess exactly what the needs of the route to be served are. Each aircraft brings its own strengths and weaknesses along with it, and it's not a zero-sum game. For example, the Caravan is a bit faster than the Twin Otter, but the Twin Otter lifts more and requires less runway (for the same payload).
On the other hand, the Caravan is considerably less expensive. I don't know what Caravans cost, but my guess is you could probably buy two of them for the price of a Twin Otter. That would be the right thing to do if you have to travel long distances with fairly light loads (what the package courier companies do with the Caravans), but it might not be the right thing to do if you need to carry larger loads, or more people, or if you have to traverse areas that are not suitable for single engine operations.
I guess what I am trying to say here is that both of these aircraft are specialized tools. You can't say that one is better than the other; all you can do is say that one is a better choice than the other
for a specific purpose. Even that is a bit of a mug's game, because for every example you can cite where aircraft 'A' is the better choice, there is a different example where aircraft 'B' would be a better choice.
Although there are a limited number of routes where the competencies of the two aircraft overlap, I really don't think that they compete with each other. Each is unique.
Michael