Fairchild Dornier 728 Family

The Fairchild Dornier 728/928 family was a series of jet-powered regional airliners that was being developed by German-American aviation conglomerate Fairchild Dornier GmbH.

It was a relatively ambitious bid to develop a group of aircraft that would have seated between 50 and 110 passengers, supplementing the existing 328JET series, a smaller regional jet. The 728/928 family is a monoplane design with fixed wings in low wing configuration and two engines mounted under the wings. It has a retractable undercarriage (or landing gear) in tricycle configuration. On 21 March 2002, the roll-out of the first 728 took place. The company planned its maiden flight to occur during the summer of 2002 and for deliveries to commence during mid-2003 to the launch customer Lufthansa Cityline.

The 728 family benefitted from a modern design while the company attracted considerable interest from various airlines upon the program’s launch. By March 2002, a total of eight customers had altogether placed 125 firm orders in addition to signed options for an additional 164 aircraft. However, the program was derailed at a late stage by the insolvency of Fairchild Dornier, which occurred shortly after the official roll-out of the first 728. Despite attempts to revive the program, including the establishment of Fairchild Dornier Aeroindustries, customers opted to cancel their orders and no aircraft actually ever flew. The three prototypes that were completed have been sold on for other purposes.