De Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo

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CC-115 Buffalo

The de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo is a short take off and landing (STOL) cargo aircraft, a turboprop developed from the earlier piston-powered DHC-4 Caribou. The aircraft has legendary STOL performance, able to take off in distances much shorter than even light aircraft. de Havilland Canada was formerly a subsidiary of De Havilland of the UK and is now a subsidiary of Bombardier of Canada.

Contents

1 Origin
2 Aircraft Data

2.1 Operators

3 Safety Record
4 Successors
5 External links
6 Related content

Origin

The Buffalo arose from a United States Army requirement. First flight was on 9 April 1964. However, having won the competition the contract was not awarded as fixed wing operations were transferred to the United States Air Force who considered themselves adequately equipped with the American made Fairchild C-123 Provider. Only a pre-production run of four DHC-5As were delivered in 1965 and designated YAC-2 (later 'CV-7A and subsequently C-8A).

The Royal Canadian Air Force (now the Canadian Forces) first acquired the DHC-5A designated as CC-115 for No. 429 Squadron. The remaining operational Buffalos operate in the Search and Rescue role for No. 442 Squadron.

Production of the DHC-5A ended in 1972 after sales to Brazil and Peru but restarted with the DHC-5D model in 1974. This variant sold to several overseas air forces beginning with Egypt's.

In the early 80s de Havilland Canada attempted to modify the Buffalo for civilian use. The aircraft was to be branded as the Transporter. After loss of the demonstration aircraft (SN 103 C-GCTC) at the 1984 Farnborough Airshow, the project was abandoned.

A production Buffalo was used for breaking time-to-height records in 1976 and one was employed to test aerodynamic prototypes for NASA as an XC-8A.

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Aircraft Data

Crew : Three
Span: 96 ft (29.26 m)
Length: 79 ft (24.08 m)
Height: 28 ft 8 in (8.73 m)
Wing Area: 945 sq ft (87.8 m²)
Engines: 2 x GE CT648204 Turboprops(upgraded to CT64-820-3 standard in the Canadian Armed Forces)
Height: 28 ft 9in
Empty Weight: 11412 kg
Max.Weight: 22317 kg

Performance

Speed: 467 km/h
Ceiling: 9450 m
Range: 1110 km

Operators

Abu Dhabi (UEA), Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, Mauritania, Mexico, Oman, Peru, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, United States, Zaire (Congo), Zambia,

Safety Record

26 [hull losses] have been recorded.

Successors

The EADS-CASA CN-295 or Lockheed/Alenia C-27J Spartan are likely to replace the Buffalo in Canadian Forces service.

External links

[Diagrams of the DHC-5D]