The Tragedy Of The 728 JET - Never Built Regional Competitor

Imagine building a plane from scratch, only to be betrayed by your airline customer, go bankrupt and destroy the prototype weeks before your first flight... this is the biggest what-if in regional aviation, the story for the Fairchild Dornier 728. In today’s video we will see what the 728 was like, which airline betrayed the builders and ultimately, why was it never built? Let’s explore. The story of the Fairchild Dornier 728 doesn’t start with Fairchild at all, in fact, it starts with another plane entirely, the turboprop Dornier 328; This regional jet had twin propellers and was considered not a bad aircraft, but just not very exciting. It was originally created as a modern answer to the 30-seater market in Europe, and was considered the most advantageous turboprop of the early 90s. Thanks to its high altitude and cruise speed, it was just as efficient as jet-engines and burned significantly less fuel.