Fairchild Metroliner

The Metro was not a design from scratch but the last rung of a ladder of conversions. Ed Swearingen, an aeronautical engineer and fixed-base operator in Texas, began by modifying the Beechcraft Twin Bonanza and Queen Air; that work led to the pressurised Merlin and then to the SA226-T Merlin III, with a new nose, wings, landing gear and tail and Garrett engines. Stretching the Merlin III produced the SA226-TC Metro, sized for 22 passengers but optimised for 19 because United States rules required a flight attendant above that number. The cabin ended up with four feet nine inches of headroom and two three-bladed Garrett TPE331 turboprops.

Prototype work started in 1968 and the first flight came on 26 August 1969, but Swearingen Aircraft lacked the money to industrialise it: late in 1971 Fairchild, which already marketed the aircraft and built its wings and nacelles, bought 90 % of the company and production could begin. Airline service followed in 1972. In 1974 the Metro II introduced larger squared-oval windows and, as an option, a small rocket in the tail cone to rescue an engine-out take-off from hot and high fields; the 12,500-pound certification ceiling then climbed with the Metro IIA of 1980, recertified at 13,100 pounds, and with the SA227-AC Metro III, cleared the same year to 14,000 pounds and later 14,500, which also gained ten feet of wing span, four-bladed propellers and quick-access cowlings.

The family went on to the Metro 23, named for certification under Part 23 of the federal rules, and branched into Merlin executive versions, the Expediter freighter and the military C-26. Production ran between 1968 and 2001 and exceeded 600 aircraft. The Metroliner was never a comfortable cabin, but operating cost and load capacity have kept it flying decades later, mostly with parcel carriers and small regional airlines.