St J
Think you are on the money there
. I had an input to the (now) 429 when it was conceptual. At the time we looked at the sigle/twingle naming of a possible 407 deveopment. Impossible - under-rotored for a start so we are back to a 206LT
.
I
think the insertion of digit 2 indicates a shift-change in design so a significant development of the craft's design. Hence 4
27 and 4
29. The balance of their aircraft are sequential, and prototypes that never got to frozen production standard. Witness the 406, (which didn't work at all well - the shrouded T/R) and then the sucessful 407 which did.
But there are anomales with this suggestion - how does one explain the 210? (and come to that the 214 ST - an exceptional aircraft I'm told, though I only managed to con a ride in teh basic 214B on its demo tour of Eastern Canada many years ago - when I had hair!)
I've a mind that Magellan came from the acronym MAPLE which stood for Modular something-or-other? But there are Pruners here who will correct me if I am wrong, that's a given!
Best -VFR