Sierra Nevada Corporation to collaborate on regional aircraft production in Turkey

328 Support Services GmbH, the Type Certificate holder for the D328, announced that its parent company, Sierra Nevada Corporation, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Turkish Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs & Communications to meet the need of producing the country’s first regional jet as part of its Regional Aircraft Project (“Project”). The first aircraft is expected to be delivered in 2018. The foundation of the Project is to be based around a modernized version of the D328 aircraft. All intellectual property rights were recently acquired as a result of SNC’s recent acquisition of subsidiary company 328 in Germany). “The aircraft will be the first domestically-built passenger aircraft in Turkey,” said SNC Chief Executive Officer Fatih Ozmen. The design of a new high-tech product, dubbed the D628 aircraft series, will start simultaneously with production of the 328 series. While the Project establishes a world-class aerospace industry infrastructure in Turkey, it will also serve the need for a new 30-seat regional aircraft in the global aviation market. SNC will collaborate with Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik ve Ticaret A. (STM) on the Project who will be responsible for upgrading the existing D328 and also manufacturing the aircraft. It will be marketed under the name TRJ328 for the jet version and T328 for the turboprop version.