Dornier 328 328JET

The 328JET did not grow out of a new design but out of a complaint: some prospective customers associated propellers with noise and poor reliability, whatever the numbers said. Dornier had studied a jet-powered version very early, during the 328's own development, and had dropped it; in the mid-1990s it came back as the 328-300. The turboprop's conservative structure worked in its favour — few modifications were needed to hang two turbofans where the six-blade propellers had been.

That continuity is not an impression but an administrative fact. European type certificate EASA.A.096 covers the Dornier 328-100 and Dornier 328-300 models in a single document and gives them the same span and the same length. In certification terms the 328JET is the second face of the same airframe: hence its place here as a variant rather than a separate model.

The programme was formally launched in February 1997, the prototype rolled out in December and flew on 20 January 1998 over the Bavarian Alps, reaching 25,000 feet on a flight of almost two hours. European certification followed in July 1999 and American approval a few weeks later. Fairchild Dornier was then talking about a potential market of up to 600 aircraft and already working on a stretched 44-seat version.

None of it happened. Competition in the regional jet segment left the company without financial headroom and insolvency came in 2002, with the 328JET as the last commercial aircraft to emerge from the historic Dornier works. The rights passed through AvCraft, which briefly resumed deliveries in 2004, and since 2006 the type certificate has been held by 328 Support Services, now within Sierra Nevada Corporation. The aircraft kept flying regardless: at the end of 2019 some thirty were still in airline service, with Sun-Air of Scandinavia the largest operator.