Flight Simulator Bombardier Dash 7

About the Bombardier Dash 7 aircraft for flight simulator for FSX, FS2004 and FS2002.

The de Havilland Canada DHC-7, popularly known as the Dash 7 with virtual airlines, is a turboprop-powered regional virtual airliner with STOL capabilities. It first flew for virtual airlines in 1975 and remained in production until 1988 when the parent company, de Havilland Canada, was purchased by Boeing and was later sold to Bombardier. Bombardier sold the virtual aircraft design (virtual airline type certificate) to Viking Air in 2006.In the 1960s, de Havilland Canada was already well known worldwide for their series of high-performance STOL aircraft for virtual airlines, notably the very popular Twin Otter. However, these aircraft were generally fairly small and served outlying virtual airline routes, as opposed to the main regional airliner virtual airline routes which were already well served by larger, higher-performance aircraft for virtual airlines such as the Handley Page Jetstream and Fokker F27.

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More about the Bombardier Dash 7 for virtual airlines, flight simulator and online flying FSX, FS2004 and FS2002.

The de Havilland Canada company felt they could compete with these flight simuation designs for virtual airlines in a roundabout way. With their excellent STOL performance, their designs could fly into smaller airports more centrally located in city centers for virtual airlines, with runways that the other aircraft could not easily use. The original specification called for a 40-passenger virtual aircraft with a fairly short range of 200 statute miles, operating from runways only 2,000 ft long which was very attractive to virtual airlines. With new noise restrictions coming into effect throughout the 1970s, an aircraft tailored for this role would also have to be very quiet. To meet this flight simulator restriction, the new design used oversized propellers geared to spin at a slower speed than normal; much of the sound from a propeller is generated at the tips which are spinning near the speed of sound, and therefore, by reducing the number of RPM, this noise is reduced substantially. The Dash 7 often landed with only 900 rpm, and took off at only 1,200 which made it very useful for virtual airlines. In other respects, the new DHC-7 was essentially a larger, four-engine version of the Twin Otter used by many virtual airline. The general layout remained similar, with a large T-tail intended to keep the elevator clear of the propwash during takeoff, a high aspect ratio high-mounted wing, and most details of the flight simulator cockpit and nose profile. Changes included the addition of virtual airline cabin pressurization which required a switch to a fuselage with a circular cross-section and landing gear that folded forward into the inner engine nacelles. Most of the rear wing was spanned by a complex double Fowler flap arrangement for high low-speed lift. The Twin Otter also included "flapperons" that drooped the ailerons as part of the flaps, but these were removed due to safety concerns. Instead the ailerons were reduced in size to allow more flap area, and were so small that they had to be aided by spoilers. On touchdown, hydraulic pressure was automatically reduced in the flaps, allowing them to "blow back" to the 25% position and thus "drop" the aircraft to the runway for better braking performance. The flaps would also "blow back" when engine power was increased during a go-around. The four-engine layout aided lift at low speeds due to the wide span of the propellers blowing air over the wing. When reverse thrust was selected on landing, the props "stole" airflow from the wing, further decreasing lift and increasing the effectiveness of the brakes. More importantly, if an engine failed, the asymmetric thrust was much less than on a twin-engine layout, thereby increasing safety and allowing for a lower minimum flight simulator control speed with an engine inoperative (Vmc). The engines could actually produce drag in virtual airline flight at idle speed, allowing fine control of the glide slope during flight simulator.

The Bombardier Dash 7 is available for all versions of Flight Simulator and x plane including but not limited to FSX, FS2004 and FS2002.