How we developed the Cessna SkyCourier

How do you bring an aircraft like the SkyCourier to life?
This is the process behind the program, directly from the team who helped bring it together.
Learn more about Textron Aviation's newest cargo aircraft: cessna.txtav.c...

[@Coughtry]

Great Cessna redesigned the twin otter.

[@bentheguru4986]

The Nomad...

[@KB4QAA]

CC: "Form follows function." Look at how many companies make planes that look like a C-172, 65 years later.

[@andrewbeck844]

Pelican1984 How many? The 172 is utilitarian. It’s relatively cheap but it also feels very cheap. It’s also ugly.

[@questionmark4348]

Yeah!! I was going to say the same thing...They copied a "Canadian" Twin Otter and are trying to convince us it's new and revolutionary ....Pffft!!

[@troutgoated]

But with the A350 and the 787 nobody was angry

[@mangoszki4531]

This honestly is my most favorite aircraft in recent times. Well done for everyone who contributed to building such an aircraft. Am looking forward to being type rated on the sky courier someday hopefully.

[@RIP5582]

What happens when the pr department gets to make an aviation vid.

[@hwoods01]

"How we developed the SkyCourier": Easy, they started with a copy of the DHC-6 and tweaked it just enough to avoid copyright infringement.

[@scratchypants1]

Was going to say twotter / do28 cross.

[@GRAHAMAUS]

And the Short Skyvan/S330/S360. The Skyvan predates even the DHC-6

[@LynxNYC]

Looks almost similar but the Tail Stabilizer, avionics, engines, etc. All different. Not to mention, cessna dominates the market on high wing with gravity fuel and single point fuel.

[@thewrenchreviews9986]

Well...its not a twin Otter, but if they gifted me one....I might take it.....maybe.....lol.

[@palvb3737]

@@LynxNYC Twin Otter predates copycats by decades...of course some improvements/changes would be in order. But then...if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[@burntsider8457]

Not a documentary about how the plane was developed. Instead a parade of platitudes and buzz phrases about teamwork and industriousness. No insight into the characteristics of the aircraft.

[@BijanIzadi]

Burntsider Its for the shareholders

[@mysterioanonymous3206]

Meh, they took a Dornier 228, modified it a little and stamped their logo on.

[@azpete6436]

a tip of the hat to the DeHavilland engineers who pioneered this craft decades ago.

[@hud86]

I've got 2,700 hours PIC in twin Otters, no way can this thing get into the same strips and conditions. This is meant for FedEx to take over for the caravan, small weak gear made for 5,000 foot strips with ILS. I've had otters flying at 35 knots and being stable. Cleared 30ft obstacle and stopped in 500 Ft on grass, 15 kt headwind. The key is to put control surfaces in the prop slipstream so you can maintain control bellow stall, stupid T- tail design; They suck on anything other than king airs.

[@jeffreysmith6910]

Derek Hudson Twin Otter is a great bird and every feature was chosen with STOL in mind. On a bird like this, the low horizontal on a conventional tail would interfere with the cargo trucks loading and unloading cargo from the rear cargo doors. Beautiful airplanes do the job they were designed for. The Twin Otter and Skycourier are both beautiful birds, just for different reasons.

[@muhammadahdalularayhanfasy8092]

@@hud86 I (we) designed similar aircraft, 19-pax A/C, as a capstone project of my degree. Looking at the data and characteristics, SkyCourier is not intended to replace Twin Otter to fly extreme routes and land at rough strips. But it is designed to fulfill FedEx needs to take cargo to remote places with suitable small strips, hence its big boxy fuselage so LD-3 container can fit directly from larger cargo planes without the need of repackaging. Twin Otter obviously cannot take containers that size directly right?

[@hud86]

@@muhammadahdalularayhanfasy8092 you're correct. I bet it's fun to fly, and is more akin to a kingair in flight characteristics than an otter. The DHC-6 is basically a huge twin engine cub with even sloppier handling. I remember transitioning from the king air to the otter and thinking if the kingair felt like a Cadillac, the otter is a Mac truck! It's not a smooth aircraft but it takes several tons of cargo off from 1,000 foot sandbars. This will be a nice plane, just wish they'd beef up the landing gear. I see an AD occuring later around that landing gear strut attach point.

[@poopytowncat]

Will they put this on skis and land on the arctic ice?

[@tonyv8925]

Congratulations Cessna on a successful design. First plane I ever flew and learned to fly was a 172, back in 1965. Awesome aircraft! Good job.

[@glennh2965]

Looks like they mated a Twin Otter and a Shorts 360. The fact it can lift that test pilot off the ground is a testament to it's load capacity. When the program manager said it took an 'Unquantifiable amount of effort' ..made me laugh, just ask the accountants they will tell you rounded up to the next dollar! Jokes aside, it looks good.

[@billybell6950]

Good job . As a recently retired Textron , Beechcraft, machinist . Great to see um doing us proud. Keep um coming.

[@mightymaligator8802]

CONGRATULATIONS !!!! This will be a very accomplished ship. Your team rocks !!!

[@rickynazario1969]

Can't wait to see this plane on Skydiving operations !!!

[@sixchuterhatesgoogle3824]

The "T" tail will make it safer than the Twin Otter - no premature deployments over the horizontal stabilizer.

[@troutgoated]

And cargo 🤩

[@caroldodds4286]

Congratulations to the Cessna SkyCourier team...very cool aircraft!

[@bonzogamer6966]

Congratulations to the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter team...very cool aircraft!

[@stefanie5934]

It is a very beautiful plane. Very Beautiful design ! I hope extended versions would come.

[@themechanic568]

They're already made. They're called ATR 42s.

[@wms1650]

@@themechanic568 Right. 🇺🇸🌝

[@Ford_Raptor_R_720hp_V8]

@@themechanic568 - you can buy 4 of these for the price of an ATR 42

[@themechanic568]

@@Ford_Raptor_R_720hp_V8 if youre going off sticker price... Used ATRs are cheap.

[@Ford_Raptor_R_720hp_V8]

@@themechanic568 - Fed Ex already has ATR-42's

[@speedbirdpdx]

Congratulations team! Can't wait to see them out in the wild!

[@diditindra]

ready to compete with the N219 made in Indonesia Aerospace (PTDI)

[@anotherdave5107]

Couldn't you just buy a Shorts 330 and paint it with green primer?

[@BigSlick40]

I think thats what they did.

[@Pwj579]

Is this really a clean sheet design ? Looks like a lot borrowed from the Shorts 330/360 series and the CASA C-212 light transport aircraft.

[@palvb3737]

@ora et labora it's a dead ringer for the old DeHaviland. Twin Otter.

[@KB4QAA]

Short and CASA copied both wheels and ailerons from somebody else. Therefore they must be poor designs. ;)

[@welysuparman1129]

How about Indonesian N219, which better 🤔

[@akbargelar5171]

Skycourier, Twin Otter, N 219, who's the best?

[@JustJohn505]

You can see the twin otter, caravan, short 360 components

[@faadar]

Just a question. Is there a float model in the foreseeable future? Looks bigger than a 1900D and also bigger than a twin otter .

[@stevesr5656]

Is there a nose package compartment and if does what’s the capacity..?

[@FLYANDI]

At $5M it's not bad at all and I love that Cessna puts these video out! Good looking plane and keep the props going! Not everything needs to be "jetted" these days :D

[@redcat9436]

Beautiful aircraft. Well done.

[@SuperYellowsubmarin]

Anybody focusing on the ressemblance of the layout with other aircrafts clearly has no clue on the tremendous effort of aircraft design. Clean sheet does not mean new layout. Congrats to the people at Textron for this refreshing achievement.

[@edisona.543]

I want to fly this airplane for fedex. Yet I have no idea how to fly. What are the steps to be a courier pilot?

[@nntflow7058]

Be a normal pilot.

[@cruxader27]

Flight training. Flight school is the very first step for you to fly a plane as a pilot. Doesn't matter if you want to fly cargo, courier, regional, charter or airline. Flight training has always been the first step.

[@GeorgeSemel]

Go to flight school, get your Commercial Pilots Certificate, an Instrument Rating, Mulienging airplane rating. Then go build up about 2500 to 3000 hours of flight time with 500 of that Multiengine time and some turbine time and maybe if one of the Feeder Cargo Haulers for Fed Ex, Like Mountian Air Cargo, is hiring, you might have competitive flight times. If you start right now, you should be competitive around 2030 or so. Aviation is in a deep slump so there are a lot of pilots on the streets right now, and more so with the companies where you would build your flight time. It's going to be a good 5 to 7 years before FEDEX gets those 100 aircraft if that is even going to be on the table in another year. So bottom line you will have a lot of work struggle and a lot of out of pocket money to get into one of those seats. It's double but It going to take a lot of effort, being very flexible to go to where the work is while you are building time most of all a lot of hard work. This COVID thing pretty much put me into retirement after 45 years of flying for a living. If you have some specified questions, post here and I will try to answer it for you. It's a tough business. After a while, it's just long boring hard work. And yeah I would love to fly this one too.

[@edisona.543]

@@GeorgeSemel Thank you so much for the insight. sure is and odd/hard time for pilots. wow there is a lot more to it than I initially though .

[@shreddder999]

Easy. Get a job in fast food so you can learn to work for little money.

[@mohandizourene1413]

Bravo à toute l'équipe Cessna.. bienvenu au nouveau né de la famille cessna turboprop.

[@grahamlwilson]

Looks like the Commonwealth Aircraft Nomad from years ago.

[@bushranger51]

I'm an Aussie and that's exactly my thought as well, soon as I saw it I thought that it WAS a Nomad that Cessna pinched the whole design and did a modernization on it.

[@joycethomas8868]

Looks like it will be a workhorse. With everyone ordering stuff off the internet, shipping companies are going to need more of these. Shure it looks like a Shorts and a few others, but it’s new and built here in the USA. I glad to see Cessna staying busy.

[@AN2Felllla]

Just watched the video... So um, how did you develop the Sky Courier?

[@arnavsadhu]

Does that look like a dornier 228?

[@tedenderpalmer6550]

Looks like Cessna looked at a Shorts, just not as ugly.

[@Ebearm3]

Yah this is basically a slightly modified Twin Otter lol I love how no one mentioned Dehavilland

[@MartinGeigerLiftHAM]

So beautiful, this will also make much sense with floats!

[@brtree74]

A Beechcraft 1900 and a GAF Nomad had a baby. They called it SkyCourier.

[@futurepilot6749]

How long runway need for it plane

[@rodolfoidrogo759]

can we use (like twin otter) for skydiving jumps?

[@dorcashickman2252]

I have always been a fan of Cessna aircraft. Cessna, keep doing what your doing with the Skycourier. You guys are fantastic! Also pls make this STOL because it would be a much more popular plane with other places like in Nepal.

[@Ford_Raptor_R_720hp_V8]

Wait until you see the Cessna Denali

[@PeetPeeet]

Twin otter / Dornier 228 / Beech 1900 / Let 410 killer. Great job! Push push push the marketing to get island hopper market. Then do high altitude certification to land at Lukla :)

[@mrtdiver]

Textron makes the Beech 1900. Beechcraft & Cessna are subsidiaries of Textron.

[@ds4284]

Nice aircraft! Was that a KingAir chase plane?

[@Frank-bn1zj]

Wooow es una hermosura este avion y por ser un cessna ade ser muy confiable y sus prestaciones buenas con el tiempo seran mucho mejor saludos desde Mexico...

[@michaeldanks5975]

How many skydivers?

[@ruifong]

This plane looks like N219 Nurtanio. but, both of aircraft was DHC-6's successor. Great job Cessna!

[@palvb3737]

Did Cessna paint a Twin Otter a different color?

[@andrewbeck844]

I’m just here to ask “What’s with the exhaust stack configuration?” Performance? Stain prevention? Ground crew safety?

[@damienhill6383]

Ldictated by local airflow from the props, to avoid overheating of the wing surfaces, and staining ..

[@richarde.6750]

Is it single pilot certified ????

[@Agwings1960]

Definitely a utility design, but one look at the landing gear and the small tires and you can tell, they weren't thinking about the Alaskan market.

[@HMASBarbette]

That looks like a mod upgrade of the Nomad. The Australian built and designed Government Aircraft Factory Nomad entered service with the Australian Army in 1975. Not a good record from memory.

[@glennh2965]

GipsAero-Mahindrah Aerospace are starting to build the Nomad again.(Without the 'input' from bureaucrats that killed it the first time)

[@HMASBarbette]

@@glennh2965 I believe the fault was in the tail structure. Interesting that an Indian? are picking up the design. Was a good idea for a Porter replacement back in the day. Look fwd to seeing the results.

[@glennh2965]

@@HMASBarbette GipsAero are Australian, they were I think partially purchased by Mahindra (?)

[@nntflow7058]

I hope they could build a stretch version with double the capacity. 6 LD3 or 38 passengers. That would be a game changer.

[@dorcashickman2252]

I agree

[@macurran111]

Would that put it in the ATR42 type capacity?

[@bigc208]

Yes. You’d need two pilots to fly that. The FedEx Feeders are also getting brand new ATR 72-600f freighters so no need to stretch this thing. Don’t be surprised if it grows pods though.😁

[@augustl607]

That looks like Y12, any relate? Will it have a retractable gear sys like y12-F?

[@cruxader27]

Y-12 was derived from Twin Otter

[@andreinarangel6227]

@@cruxader27 The Y-12 is a coffin

[@intrickchannel7705]

More Looks Like IAe N219 Aircraft

[@danielwang2956]

How did they manage to make a delivery truck with wings look exciting in this video?

[@shapour1964]

How much price

[@sirpercival4731]

Looks like a Shorts 330 with a different tail !

[@LynxNYC]

For all the geniuses that think it's a DHC-6 or some other re-design, it's NOT. Looks almost similar but the Tail Stabilizer, avionics, engines, etc. All different. Not to mention, cessna dominates the market on high wing and single point fuel point. Better useful load as well.

[@nunyabidness3075]

Lynx, I think the proper response to all that is, “So what?” Seriously, this would have been a good achievement in 1965 or maybe even 1970. So you’ll have to excuse the rough reception from folks who think a company that has dominated its industry for so long owes us a bit more innovation rather than glacially paced evolution.

[@LynxNYC]

@@nunyabidness3075 as a pilot, I know these things and I fly Cessnas so I should know lol

[@jdwatson]

Congrats to all involved !

[@nikobelic4251]

Everyone is talking about the twin otter. I see a high wing Beech 1900

[@samtatenumber1]

yeah, people are like "copy of twin odder" no its not. the only similarities are that it has 2 engines and high wings. the beech 1900 is much more similar

[@nikobelic4251]

@@samtatenumber1 thank you!!!

[@dominiquedrozak3723]

I just love all the aluminum tape all over the wings and nacelles, looking good.....

[@haroldhubbs8117]

Is it STOL capable?

[@michaelbevan3285]

what a lot of the commentators are forgetting is that Cessna's dominance of the supply market means that they can outdo their rivals and get parts and support anywhere in the world. The M28 isnt supported like that,the Chinese aircraft is not, the S330 is obsolete and Viking don't have the financial means to compete with Cessna.

[@bryanst.martin7134]

Looks like a 1/2 scale C130 with twins. That you can drop the rear hatch and load a pallet or 2 says a lot.

[@repentuklondonwatchman1373]

SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL

[@tombowers2020]

Shout out to the Shorts Brothers!

[@WalleywolfIdaho]

Beautiful aircraft!!!

[@i.r.wayright1457]

I worked on the 208 Caravans. Great plane for a mechanic, easy to maintain. But here is the problem; these planes are a big investment but they only make two short trips a day. Once in the early morning and once in the evening. It's too bad you couldn't slide some seats in it and use it as a commuter airliner during the off hours. Use the same pilots as they will appreciate the extra flying time to build their hours toward bigger planes. The smaller airports these aircraft haul freight to have customers that would appreciate the service.

[@Robocline]

But won't this just cut into Cessna's current customer base for the Caravan? I can see this is a much bigger aircraft but I wonder if companies like Fed-Ex will buy both or just ditch their Caravans for this.

[@christopherwarsh]

I love that it’s a lady who’s the program manager for this project!! Looking forward to flying in this... although, at this point does that mean I gotta hide in a FedEx box a la George of the Jungle? 😂

[@markanthony4655]

Nice, to me it looks like a cross between a Twin Otter and the square cabin of the Short 330/360 series.

[@lembughiri]

Wow N219 🔥🔥🔥

[@adamelias5403]

Everybody talking about this is a twin otter copy... but it really is a CASA 212... look it up!!

[@felipedenis2021]

Uma versão anfíbia desta aeronave é certeza de grande sucesso

[@davidobyrne9549]

Its got PT6 engines so why didn't FedEx just buy up the world's remaining Shorts SD330 and SD360 airplanes for a fraction of the price. The Shorts have full size cargo doors too and can carry twice the payload.

[@robert_costello]

I don’t get it. Why were they so excited? Were they expecting the plane to not takeoff?

[@freebirdcf1]

Twin Otter was great before - - Cessna was great before - - Nothing that new here - Proud of ya's all Fly safe

[@johnneedy3164]

The first Cessna I flew was my dad's 170

[@Wheeler590]

Looks like a Twin Otter

[@KB4QAA]

And how may Twin Otters has DHC sold this year? ;)

[@KB4QAA]

@totenkopf And Cessna has already sold 100. Besides, the Cessna can carry three times the cubage. They aren't comparable planes.

[@stujanes]

Please. I need this in amphibian version 🙂

[@johnmuhire4709]

I'd love to fly in one of these. Beautify aircraft.

[@PilotBlogDenys]

They made the Antonov-28 with T-type tail 😅

[@petrosspetrosgali]

It looks TOTALLY unique. It looks absolutely nothing like a twin otter.👍🏻😂. It’s nice that Cessna angles the exhaust. On the twin otters, the landing lights and de ice boots get all burned up.

[@JohnSmith-ru7fm]

It's a twin turboprop airplane, looks nice but you didn't reinvent the wheel.

[@mikejuba9228]

The type of bird the Coast Guard should be looking at. It might fit their tough mission.

[@ivannoneyah7888]

I smell an air ambulance coming out of this one

[@MusicmatchJukebox]

Would love to get my hands on these controls. Let me know if you guys need a low time multi commercial pilot to give it a go 😂

[@canamwing6999]

Looks like the love child of a Twin Otter and a Dornier 228.

[@evgenykovalenko7279]

Пока мы поднимаем в воздух посредственные аппараты, Цесна поднимает востребованный самолет. А ведь, нечто похожее было разработано на Ил-е более 20 лет назад. Нам почему-то нужно всегда догонять...

[@JuanAdam12]

Good for them, but this whole video seemed like a parody.

[@yxhankun]

Beautiful

[@Chuck59ish]

Looks like they're building a new Twin Otter.

[@999.9finegold]

more range can be awesome

[@Castellao1974]

This aircraft will fliying on the near future on Amazon forests, over the Africa, etc..etc...Will helps and support a lot of peoples and countries.

[@dominiquedrozak3723]

just watch the price!

[@AN2Felllla]

DHC-6 with less STOL and Shorts gear

[@actontreadway1168]

Glorious.

[@Sheldon-yc5uh]

Looks like a Dornier to me. Was expecting a lot more technical detail.

[@CaliforniaFly]

The new Cessna ice magnet.

[@keithweedt7236]

Kinda resembles a C-23 Sherpa.

[@radenkoembino1397]

Stabality on air steady be able to the gravity grib ....... awesome

[@eriksmith6772]

Looks very similar to the Casa-212

[@mrrolandlawrence]

is this the new an28? instant like btw :)

[@theschwarts]

Wow! they invented a Short 360

[@intrickchannel7705]

More Looks Like IAe N219 Aircraft