A while back a friend of mine told me about a modified Dash 8 that the Army was using that had been flying out of his airport. It ended up coming to Livermore – a short drive from home. I went to see it but it was parked in a hangar on the other side of the field and I couldn’t see much. It flew a few times but never when I could see it. I figured that there was nothing much to do since I wouldn’t see it. Imagine my surprise when I came across its siblings.
I was driving around Tucson International when I saw two Dash 8s parked up. Sure enough, they were in the same configuration as the previous one. This time they had their civilian markings obscured. A little check with Google and they are apparently RO-6A airframes. The Air Force operates Dash 8s to monitor ranges for traffic under the -7 designation but these are different. Spooky stuff no doubt. Sadly, they didn’t move while I was there but they had been active. I was just glad to catch them out in the wild.
Hi Rob, we fly on the Dash 8, the 400Q I believe, with Flybe to France from Southampton “International!” Airport in its civilian mode. I take it they use it as its Q for quiet therefore great for regional airports and with shorter runways. We’ve been on them to various locations and they’re nice ‘planes, we like the 2 and 2, so no middle fatties and its configured for about 84? pax. Not huge leg room, but not a prob for short haul. Xx
The Q400 is a stretched version of this airframe with new engines. My friend Steve was on the flight test team in Canada quite a while back now. He was on a team that brought one across the Atlantic for Farnborough. Long trip for that type of plane! Glad you like them.