The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) will be gaining three new de Havilland Dash 8-400 (aka q400 ) trainers for SkyAlyne to provide training for future Airborne Electronic Sensor Operators (AES Op) and Air Combat Systems Officers (ACSO). Having a reliable turboprop platform to replace the current De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Dash 8-100 (CT-142) turboprop trainers. Providing aircrew training in proven platforms SkyAlyne decided to use the very well-proven De Haviland of Canada Dash 8-400 as a component of its RCAF Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) program for the 24 years remaining on the contract.
Already, SkyAlyne has bought the following aircraft to support its contractor training mission: 19 Airbus H135 helicopters for helicopter training 23 Grob G 120TP for basic flying training with a turboprop basic trainer 19 Pilatus PC-21 turboprop trainers for advanced flying training Simple Flying covered the RCAF Pilatus PC-21 purchase decision. The PC-21s Simple Flying recently reviewed will replace the Raytheon CT-156 Harvard II turboprop trainers, dating from 2000. All of the above aircraft are proven training platforms in use by other air forces.
There may also be a Beechcraft King Air variant joining the fleet. However, SkyAlyne’s decision to use the Dash 8-400 variant of the Dash 8 turboprop family for military training is a first. Below is a post to X (formerly Twitter) by the RCAF about FAcT: Not only will de Haviland of Canada bring back the manufacture of the new Dash 8-.
