Fairchild Metroliner variant
Fairchild Metroliner SA227-DC Metro 23
The last Metroliner generation, launched as the Metro IV and renamed after the FAR Part 23 standard it was certified against. 110 were built, thirty-seven of them for the US armed forces as C-26Bs.
- 110
- Units built
- 1,450 km
- Range
- 19
- Passengers
History
A name borrowed from a regulation
Few aircraft take their surname from the number of the rule that certifies them. The Metro 23 began as the Metro IV, the natural continuation of the Roman numerals, and ended up renamed after Part 23 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, amendment 34, against which it was approved. Behind the name change lay better systems, more power and another increase in take-off weight; much of it came out of the work done on the C-26B for the United States Air Force.
End of the line
The Metro 23 was the last Metroliner. Production ended in 1998, by which time regional jets were in fashion and turboprops out of favour with airlines; unsold airframes were left at the San Antonio plant. The very last of them, Metro 23 c/n DC-904B, was not delivered until 2001, to a Pennsylvania charter operator. Counting Metro, Expediter, the Merlin IV series and the C-26s, 703 long-fuselage aircraft were built.
What kept flying
The Metro 23's career ran on long after the line closed, mostly in freight and on hard regional routes. There was also a Metro 23 EF with an external pod under the fuselage for extra baggage volume, an Expediter 23 freighter and a Merlin 23 executive version. The Metro and Merlin type certificates are today held by M7 Aerospace.