A true beast, many pilots would call it, the Dash-8 Q400 is a Canadian turboprop airliner designed and developed by Bombardier Aerospace (now being produced by De Havilland Canada). First introduced in 1999, Bombardier has since then sold over 300 ‘-400’ variants. Capable of superb fuel efficiency, quiet comfort and low operational costs, the Q400 is literally the powerhouse of Porter Airlines. Although it is quite underrated, nobody can deny its beauty and reputation. This aircraft is what our virtual organisation is so proud of, and is also what we revolve around. All Porter flights are operated by the Q400. There are currently 29 Q400s in the actual Porter Airlines fleet, as of June 2019.
The general airframe was first introduced in 1984 (as the -100), and made its debut with NorOntair. Its development stemmed from the early Dash-7, an aircraft capable of short-field performance. Only a handful of air carriers employed the Dash-7, as most regional airlines were more interested in operation costs. De Havilland responded by dropping the short-field performance requirement and adapting the basic Dash-7 layout to use only two engines. Pratt & Whitney developed the new PW100 engines for this role. The Dash-8 rolled out on the 19th of April, 1983, with its first flight on June 20th of the same year.
At VirtualPorter, we require all of our pilots to follow proper Q400 standard operating procedures to ensure that we stay true to our realism aspect and remain professional. That’s why we’ve committed so much time into creating the Q400 handbook (with data based on real life and other flight simulators, tailored for Infinite Flight) where any important features to flying the aircraft are located.
If any assistance operating the airframe is needed, @Ryan2, @MisterButler and @Snow_Cone are the suggested members to contact. Check our Discord #documents channel or YTZ lounge for the handbook - although it states on our IFC main thread that the handbook is a Discord exclusive feature, that is no longer the case as of our 3.03 VA update! If you’d like to see more Q400 pictures, head over to our Instagram.