Turboprop airlines?

Hi Ogre!!

Short Answer: No..

Long Answer: Although turboprops are very reliable aircraft in terms of short takeoffs and landings and fuel economy, they are severely short on range and are much slower than their jet counterparts...... In todays world the slow part is very important, imagine a 5 to 6 hour STI-JFK flight with those loud turboprops by your side.

Here in our country you still see turboprops for airlines that fly intra-Caribbean flights that involve short range and can be operated on small(er) airstrips........ but for longer range (400nm and over) and more capacity you need the turbofan powered aircraft to do the job as of right now, in the future maybe more technologies can get something better in the skies.

On regards to fighter planes, the Tucano (our next combat aircraft) is a propeller driven aircraft that is light and easy to fly but compared to turbojet combat airplanes it doesn't have a chance to compete in more advance scenarios which involve high altitude high speed manouvering. They are very different types of airplanes.

Best regards ogre hope it helped

STIOP

Excellent question, Jefe

Joel,

There was an article just yesterday in the Wall Street Journal about how, to quote aviation consultant Michael Boyd, "the age of the regional jet is over." Turboprops are making a come back in the 50-90 seat range. Good news for Bombardier and ATR - the remaining manufacturers of the things.

With oil at over US$100/barrel, the smaller Canadair and Embraer jets have stopped making financial sense. This has resulted in Delta abandoning markets like Toledo and Atlantic City - not because yields were low but, rather, because Delta's regional airlines do not have the fleet to be able to operate profitably at higher fuel costs.

10 years ago, regional jets were seen as the saviors for smaller airports. The turboprops that traditionally served them were slow, uncomfortable and vibrated like a jackhammer. The regional jets, while still damned uncomfortable, were at least fast, and allowed smaller airports to market their "jet service" as competition to bigger airports that might be 2 or 3 hours drive time away.

So, yes, we expect to see an increase in the number of turboprops over the next few years. The new offerings from Bombardier and ATR have fairly large capacities, good speed and low vibration (thanks to new technologies). No, you'll never fly SDQ-JFK on one. But a short range flight calling for a 50-70 passenger bird - such as STI-FLL - would be a possibility in the medium term.

Something else to think about

Here's a photo dating from the last oil crisis

Photos: McDonnell Douglas MD-81(UHB) (DC-9-81(UHB)) Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Anything is possible if oil continues to go up in price dramatically. The propfan engine shown in the photo claimed a 35% improvement in fuel economy.

Porfio_Rubirosa said:

Here's a photo dating from the last oil crisis

Photos: McDonnell Douglas MD-81(UHB) (DC-9-81(UHB)) Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Anything is possible if oil continues to go up in price dramatically. The propfan engine shown in the photo claimed a 35% improvement in fuel economy.

Click to expand...

Porfi, great post on the WSJ article.... read something similar on another webpage.... pretty much summarizes the turboprop usage, advantages and disadvantages...

regards

STIOP

The Rise of Turbo Props

Ogre, I am amazed that no one has thought of new software that would make travel by turbo props more popular. All we need to see is for Expedia and Orbitz to come up with a new Graphic/User Interface that allows travelers to state their zip code and not the closest major airport. Once, the major carriers know (for example) that there are 50 people in Puckerbrush, Nebraska, who really want to got to Sturgis for the Harley Davidson meeting, they can send out a turbo prop to connect the closest two regional airports. Through this new software Airlines can find thousands of patterns like this. It entails, of course, the rise of smaller regional airports. The result would be thousands of short, one time, flights that can keep thousands of turbo props zipping all over the US and the Caribbean.