Fairchild Dornier Offers Military Buyers
Off-the-Shelf Answers for AEW, More

German-American Fairchild Dornier is taking its rebirth beyond regional aircraft and business jets to an old "new" market-the military-where the company is promoting its roomy cabins and commercial aircraft operating economics to designers of airborne early warning, search and rescue, and other systems.

Work on military markets has stepped up in recent months, with Fairchild Dornier targeting opportunities like the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater program, and initiating such engineering projects as a forward cargo door for the developmental 928JET to allow it to handle 463L military pallets.

The general idea is to supply military customers with cheap, proven, off-the-shelf solutions. "It's built, it's designed," a company spokesman says.

Both Fairchild Dornier predecessor firms have military experience, notably Dornier and its Do-228 still used for maritime patrol missions, and Fairchild with its Metroliner, operated by the military as the C-26 (the 1,053rd and final aircraft in the Merlin/Metro series was delivered this past March to a civilian customer in Pennsylvania).

Teams headed by Litton/Avondale, Lockheed Martin and Science Applications International are working the Coast Guard's Deepwater initiative, on which as much as $15 billion may be spent over 20 years to furnish the service with new, but "non-developmental" ships and aircraft. Some $338 million is expected to be allocated for fiscal year 2002.

"We're working all three," Fairchild Dornier government programs VP Tom Jobe says of the Deepwater teams. He concedes that the Coast Guard will probably replace its older ships before tackling aircraft, but says his company wants to be ready when aircraft buys commence.
Fairchild Dornier engineers are already working on a new front, left-side cargo door for the 928JET, an aircraft just smaller than a Boeing 737 that's to make its first flight in 2003. The door's being designed to handle 463L military pallets measuring 88 inches wide and civilian pallets that are 8 inches wider, Jobe says (thereby opening civil cargo markets, too).

Besides the Coast Guard, Fairchild Dornier is targeting National Guard aircraft, where Jobe says 22 C-26 Metroliners are evenly split between anti-drug and Army operational support missions. The company is promoting its 328JET as a C-26 replacement, touting an upper-wing design that facilitates ground surveillance, and good short-runway performance. A turboprop variant is available, too.

Northrop Grumman is another potential customer, using Fairchild Dornier's 728JET or 928JET as a platform for AEW missions.

Fairchild Dornier downplays the fact that its aircraft are assembled in a town called Oberpfaffenhofen. "We are still a U.S.-owned company," says Jobe. He pegs the U.S. dollar-value of the 728JET at about 51% as avionics, engines, and landing gear are all American-made. "It just happens to be assembled in a German factory," he says.

The international nature of the product should work to Fairchild Dornier's favor, Jobe claims, as offsets are built-in. CASA, for example, has responsibility for the 728JET's wing, which should make the aircraft attractive to Spanish officials.

As for China, where Fairchild Dornier has just opened a Beijing office to tackle the regional market, the military salesman is waiting. "Right now we are not targeting the Chinese," Jobe says. But that doesn't mean he's not thinking about it. "The 728 and the 928 make excellent P-3 replacements," he says in reference to the world's most famous surveillance aircraft, still sitting noseless on a Hainan Island military base.