Abstract:
Short Eros. and Harland Ltd. have carried out a brief
preliminary study of the Turbo-Skyvan for crop-spraying and
have derived payload data and operating costs on a provisional
basis.
Further studies have been carried out by the College
to assess the Turbo-Skyvan on the basis of economic
comparison with typical available aircraft operating on
agricultural work and this report deals with the detail
of these comparisons.
Conclusions are that under European small-field
conditions 3 , the Skyvan only becomes competitive when
advantage is taken of its versatility to provide a single
operator with a number of roles, one of which would be cropspraying,
thereby increasing utilisation to more realistic
figures (1500 and 2000 hrs/yr. have been investigated, in
addition to the average 'crop-spraying only' utilisation
of 400 hrsiyr).
Under Afro-Asian operating conditions, with larger
fields and greater areas ', the above comments are still
substantially true but, when the higher utaisations are
considered, the Skyvan is cheaper to operate and has a
higher application capacity than its assumed competitors.
