It was a major vacancy on the ramp late Sunday. There were the Bombardier Dash 8 Q200 and Q300 parked side by side in their colorful impressionistic turbine-blade paint schemes. But where, the question begged, was the star of the trio-the new 70-seat Q400? Taken out of the flight-test program in Wichita, was it on the ground in Reykjavik, broken enroute to its air-show debut?

Nothing quite so dramatic. As an experimental aircraft, the airplane is restricted to VFR-only operation. Unfortunately, it was held up by weather along the way and missed its Saturday arrival envelope at Farnborough by two hours. Consequently the big bird, also in a rotor-blade design-to emphasize that it is after all powered by turbine engines-languishes at the Southampton airport until it can fly in, hopefully on Monday, to join its two siblings. The Q400 will not appear in the flying display, however. The Q300, in white and green livery, will do the honors.

By Arnold Lewis