Dornier Seawings will revive the dormant the Seastar Amphibian at next week's Singapore Airshow.
The Seastar is a twin turbo-prop amphibian that was certified in 1991 and shelved immediately before a single production airframe was delivered. The Seastar runs two 650-shp PT6A-135s spinning five-blade MT propellers. The maximum cruise speed is 180 KTAS with a useful load of 1360 kg.
The company, now based in Wuxi, China, will contract Diamond Aircraft Canada to build the all-composite airframe.
“We’re excited to be producing the airframe for the Dornier Seastar” said Peter Maurer, President and CEO of Diamond Aircraft Industries Inc. (Canada).
“It is a sophisticated and substantial aircraft with an MTOW of over 10,000 lbs [4536 kg] and capacity to carry two crew plus up to 12 passengers. Thanks to its unique design features the Seastar is superior in every important measure such as speed, range, endurance, direct operating cost, to name a few."
For Diamond Canada, it is the largest airframe they have been involved with. Prior to the Dornier, the suspended Diamond D-Jet had been the biggest aircraft the company had manufactured.
We selected Diamond for several reasons”, said Dr Albert Halder, President and CEO of Dornier Seawings GmbH.
“Diamond was responsive to our needs, has the necessary experience, resources and facilities and their airplanes are known for their high build quality. We will work very closely with Diamond, with our specialists resident at Diamond’s London [Ontario] facility to oversee the progress, support tooling and process development, and to provide engineering and production liaison with our team in Germany."
Diamond expects to deliver he first components to Germany in the first half of 2016.