The DHC-6 Twin Otter and the Dornier 228 (now called Do 228 NG and manufactured by RUAG) are still in production.
None of them is pressurized, thus pretty useless for commercial use over the Alps or for specialized roles (i.e. air-ambulance) I guess.
I find the
EV-55 a beautiful little thing but...has it gone past the initial flight testing phase and made it into production? Still altitude-limited, tho!
Personal opinion but...in another life I've witnessed serious and demanding commercial-ops flown on PA31s, a/c so tired that my dog would refuse to use them as a canile and still out in the middle of the night, into icing, stuck at FL100 and single-piloted! And all that without mention of the questionable mx practices of some.
So...why are they regarded safer than something like a PC12?
PZ
