CASA C-212 Aviocar C-212-400 (serie 400)

The Series 400 is the fourth and last production evolution of the C-212 Aviocar developed by CASA's design office, after the 100, 200 and 300 series, and the basis for a variety of special mission versions. It first flew on 4 April 1997 and the Spanish civil aviation authority (DGAC) granted its type certificate on 30 March 1998, as model C-212-EE under the same Spanish type certificate 01/82 that covers the rest of the family and that EASA later grandfathered. From 1998 it replaced the Series 300 on the production line.

The new engine was chosen above all to improve hot-and-high performance, one of the Aviocar's usual working environments. The type certificate data sheet lists two Allied Signal TPE331-12JR-701C turboprops, limited to 925 ESHP (970 SHP) both at take-off and at maximum continuous power, driving four-bladed Dowty Rotol R.334/4-82-F/13 constant-speed, reversible, fully feathering propellers 2.79 m in diameter. English Wikipedia gives that rating as 690 kW (925 shp).

The other major change was in the cockpit. The avionics were moved from under the floor to the nose, and the flight deck received a four-screen electronic flight instrument system (EFIS), a flight management system (FMS) and an integrated engine data system (IEDS) with two colour liquid-crystal displays, which also replaces the old warning panel and eases maintenance. The type certificate names the FMS, IEDS and EFIS explicitly in its FAR Part 25 certification basis, and the aircraft is certificated in that standard's large aeroplane category. Externally, the round windows of earlier series gave way to square ones, the same as on the CN-235 and C-295, to cut costs, and the baggage compartment that the Series 300 had on the left side of the nose was deleted.

According to the EASA data sheet, the C-212-EE has a span of 20.4 m, a length of 16.1 m and a height of 6.8 m, with a wing area of 40.29 m². Its certified maximum weights are 7,750 kg ramp, 7,700 kg take-off, 7,450 kg landing and 7,100 kg zero fuel; the wing tanks hold 2,074 L (1,998 L usable), rising to 3,066 L (2,982 L usable) with the optional 212-54700 or 212-54701 wing tanks. Maximum operating altitude is 7,620 m and minimum control speed 77 knots (about 143 km/h). Globalsecurity gives a cargo capacity of 2,950 kg, or 25 paratroopers, or 12 stretchers with 4 medics; airforce-technology quotes a cruise speed of 300 km/h at 3,300 m.

The Series 400 sold mainly to government and military customers. The Dominican Air Force received three between 2000 and 2001, still in service in December 2023; the Suriname Air Force received two in 1999, one of them a maritime patrol aircraft, and both were sold to the Botswana Defence Force in 2014. EADS CASA signed in May 2003 to supply one to the Paraguayan Air Force, delivered that year with an ambulance conversion kit. In June 2003 the Australian company Skytraders bought two to operate in Antarctica for the Australian Antarctic Division, and the Australian Army leased two from it for its parachuting school. Other users included the Ecuadorian Army (two), the Lesotho Defence Force (one), the Venezuelan Navy (three) and Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture, which ordered two and received the first in 2011. In August 2006 the Brazilian Air Force selected the C-212-400 to replace its EMB-110 Bandeirantes, with up to 50 aircraft required, but the order never materialised. The maritime patrol versions of this series have their own entries.

In November 2006 EADS CASA agreed with Indonesian Aerospace on licensed production and final assembly of the C-212-400 in Bandung; in 2008 the agreement was extended to move all production there, and between 2004 and 2008 the jigs and fixtures left the San Pablo plant for Indonesia, where the type was built as the NC212-400 until 2014, when it gave way to the NC212i. The last Spanish examples were assembled in Seville from parts built in Indonesia: the third and final C212-400 for the Vietnam Marine Police, the 477th C212, was formally delivered on 28 December 2012, ending more than 40 years of continuous production of the type in Spain. On 16 June 2016 a Vietnam Coast Guard C-212-400 crashed in the Gulf of Tonkin while searching for the crew of a Su-30MK2 downed a few days earlier; all nine crew members were lost.