In the early 2000s, this place southwest of Munich was buzzing. Fair-child Dornier had grand plans for a revolution in regional aviation and had launched the 728 JET family, new 70-and 90-seat regional jets intended to compete with Embraer's E-Jets. Arriving on the heels of the 50-seater boom, the idea seemed promising, and big orders had come through, from Lufthansa in particular. Facilities at Ober-pfaffenhofen Airport, named after a small village located almost directly at the southern end of its long runway, seemed to be bursting at their seams. But then came 2002 and the financial collapse of Fairchild Dornier. Several rescue attempts failed. The only completed prototype of the 728 JET, presented at a late rollout ceremony to attract additional investment, is now a cabin test tool for German aerospace research center DLR. The company has been broken up into several parts, most of which still reside at the small aerospace center here. Almost 20 years after the demise of Fairchild Dornier and the bitter end of dreams about redefining regional aviation, a small team partly made up of former Dornier employees is working hard to turn their new dream into reality. They want to become part of a new, environmentally sustainable regional aviation industry. Deutsche Aircraft, built from the old 328 Support Services and owned by Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) since 2015, is developing the D328eco, an aircraft that ideally will be 100 powered by power-to-liquid (PtL) sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) sourced from green hydrogen and captured CO_2. If they are successful, CO_2 emissions per passenger kilometer could be cut by up to 96, Deutsche Aircraft says. With its timeline for service entry in 2026, the turboprop could be the first of a new generation of regional aircraft produced with sustainability as a key design aspect.
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