The Belfast, Northern Ireland, based Short Brothers Ltd., starting as an aeroplane builder back in
1908, began in 1958 with the development of a new light freighter based on the basic concepts of
the Miles designed HDM-105. This SC.7 Skyvan had a square-section fuselage with a rear-loading ramp,
fixed tricycle undercarriage and twin fins. The Skyvan design developed into a multirole STOL 19-seats transport aircraft, and the prototype
( G-ASCN c/n SH.1828 ) flew first on 17 January 1963, powered by two Continental piston engines. After the first
flight of the prototype, the Skyvan was re-engined with Turbomeca Astazou turboprops. The first production model was
the Skyvan 2 powered by two Turbomeca Astazou turboprop engines. In 1968, production switched to the Skyvan Series 3 aircraft,
which replaced the Astazou engines with Garrett AiResearch TPE331 turboprops. Mainly cargo and military operators
ordered the S.C.7 Skyvan. A total of 153 Skyvans (plus the prototype) was produced before production ended in
1986.
This Short SC7 Skyvan 3 variant 100 s/n SH.1964 was test flown as
G-14-132 and on 24 December 1978, the aircraft was registered G-BGFR
with Short Brothers Ltd., Belfast. On 21 May 1979, the 1978-built Short
SC7 Skyvan 3 was delivered to the Botswana Defence Air Wing and entered
service as 'OC 2'. On 22 June 1979, registration G-BGFR was cancelled as
exported to Botswana. The Botswana Defence Air Wing operated two Skyvan
3:P 'OC 1' and its sistership 'OC 2' from 1979. They served until 1993,
when they were disposed of, and two CASA 212-300 Aviocars were purchased
and received the same serials. Short SC7 Skyvan 3M 'OC 2' was sold to
Fomaz Air of Malaysia and registered first A2-AII. In June 1994, the
Short SC7 Skyvan 3M was registered 9M-FAT in Malyasia. Since Skyvan
9M-FAT was operated by Mofaz Air; WiraKriz and finaly by Island Air. In
October 2005, the aircraft was registered OE-FDN in Austria with Pink
Aviations Services Luftverkehrsunternehmen Gesellschaft m.b.H. & Co. KG,
Vienna. The aircraft underwent major overhaul at the Pink Aviation
Services base Klatovy in Czech and entered service with Pink Aviation
Services in April 2006. The aircraft is operated on skydiver missions since.
On 17 July 2015, Pink Aviation Services' Skyvan 3M OE-FDN was seen at
Flugplatz Leer-Papenburg during Pink Boogie Leer 2015.
Luchtvaart déjà vu
