Just reading through the history of the de Havilland Heron by J Graham Cowell and did not realise that the Mk1 version of which 51 were produced had a fixed undercarriage. Partly to reduce maintenance costs Also Sir Geoffreys life long passion of natural history meant a number of the aircraft were named after birds, butterflies, moths and other winged insects
Does the history cover later conversions? I flew quite a number of the Saunders ST-27 for Air Atonabee in the early 80's. Many years earlier my Dad worked for Dave Saunders in the drawing office about 1969. There is a site devoted to the ST-27. I uploaded a scanned copy of my flight manual to it.
Ok. Good to know. Yup flew it. There were only a total of 12 conversions if memory serves. I flew 6 of them while with AA.
I flew Twin Otters before the ST-27. In terms of a "passenger" plane, it had a wing spar that ran across the floor aisle about 12 inches high that passengers (and our single flight attendant) had to step over. Not the most ergonomic of designs. It was also equipped with a castoring nosewheel, whereas the TO had a steerable nosewheel using a tiller bar and hydraulic toe brakes. The ST had a compressed air system with a thumb control of the brakes. I remember our hangar in Peterborough had lots of boxes and crates with all the tools and jigs.