CASA C-212 Aviocar

The Aviocar answered a 1967 Spanish Air Force requirement to replace a worn-out fleet of post-war transports, among them the Douglas C-47 and the Junkers Ju 52 built in Spain as the CASA 352. CASA's project office set a deliberately modest and very precise target: carry one tonne of freight over 1000 km, work from short unprepared strips, load and unload easily and stay cheap to buy and maintain. The company also wanted an aircraft it could sell outside the military market, so the design served both customers from the outset. The first prototype took off from Getafe air base on 26 March 1971; the Spanish Air Force committed to the type in 1974, and the first example of the dedicated commercial version was handed over in July 1975.

The technical recipe explains much of its longevity. The C-212 is a high-wing machine with a box-section fuselage, conventional tail and fixed tricycle undercarriage — retractable gear was traded away for simplicity and cost — intended to operate far from ground support. Its rear ramp, unusual among rivals, made it a favourite of parachutists and smokejumpers, while the cabin takes between 21 and 28 passengers or 24 paratroopers on folding sidewall seats. Because the fuselage is unpressurised, airline use is confined to low levels below 10,000 ft (3,000 m), which suits short legs and regional services. The 100, 200, 300 and 400 series successively raised power and equipment, culminating in the 1997 model with a glass cockpit and more powerful Honeywell TPE331 engines.

Indonesia proved to be the decisive customer. IPTN obtained a manufacturing licence for Bandung in 1975 with Spanish technical assistance, and by 2000 had built 95 aircraft, most of them for domestic operators. In Spain the line faded slowly: the last airframe assembled in Seville, number 477, went to the Vietnam Coast Guard in December 2012, and in 2013 Airbus formalised the complete transfer of production to Indonesian Aerospace, which concentrated on the improved NC212i. By then the type was flying in some 40 countries with more than ninety civil and military operators on transport, surveillance and search-and-rescue duties; the Australian airline Skytraders has even used it to support scientific research across Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.