Advantageous Alternative Assignment for Antipodean Aerial Applicator
Were there to be a prize for the farthest-traveled exhibit here at the show, the unquestioned winner would be the distinctive, black and yellow Pacific Aerospace 750XL, whose ZK-prefixed registration indicates its New Zealand origins. Ferried to the UK three weeks ago in 80 airborne hours over 12 days, this, the sixth production example and second in Europe, was hard at work carrying parachutists aloft at a club near Carlisle until 9 p.m. the evening before its arrival at Farnborough.
Incredibly, it is exactly 50 years and one month since the first flight of the progenitor Fletcher FU-24, a cropduster designed by John Thorp, who was later to create the Piper Cherokee. With P&WC PT6 turboprop power, this became the Pacific Cresco, but so many parachute clubs found its roomy interior a convenient jumping platform that the company bowed to the inevitable and produced the 750XL variant specifically for that role.
Airwing Aircraft Sales of Coventry was appointed UK and Ireland sales agency for military and paramilitary 750XL marketing three days before the show opened, and sales manager Paul Foster is on hand to explain the aircraft's suitability for surveillance, medical evacuation, border patrol, mapping/survey and special forces insertion and supply.
Those with more sporting activities in mind will appreciate the fact that the 750XL can carry 18 parachutists to 12,000 feet in 12 minutes and be back on the ground three minutes later, the big exit with its transparent roller-blind door allowing simultaneous drops of eight, plus their camera operator, at a time.
