commercial
regional aviation
A Never Ending
Debate
What remains unclear, with fuel and environmental standards putting pressure, is whether
the market will continue with larger regional jets or combine jets and turboprops
Photographs: Bombardier, Embraer
By R. Chandrakanth
T
Turboprop airliners existed much before fast-paced
jets came on the horizon. They will continue to. Though some
aviation pundits not long ago, forecast that turboprops would
become obsolete, they have been proven wrong. Turboprops
continue to flourish and the debate ‘what is good for regional
airliners: jets or turboprops’ is a never ending one. The latter
may look old with propellers on their wings, but they have been
given a new avatar, escalating the competition for the jets.
www.sps-aviation.com
At the turn of the century, Brazilian aerospace major
Embraer stopped making its turboprop EMB-120 Brasília,
switching entirely to producing jets, setting off a debate on the
future of turboprops. While Embraer changed lanes, ATR never
gave up and continues to focus on its turboprop strength. So
does Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier which has a
mix of turboprops and jets. ATR that proclaims ‘proud to be
turboprop’ states that one of the current and future challenges
ISSUE 5 • 2014
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