In
the never ending effort to improve our performance and profitability in
the cargo industry, Murray Aviation has developed an STC for the
conversion of the Jetstream 31/32 from passenger to cargo.
The Jetstream
has had a great reputation in the commuter industry for dispatch
reliability and being a work horse.
The quality and capability of the Jetstream makes it ideally suited for cargo industry. The STC involves the
installation of a 72" wide by 60" high two piece cargo door. The
emergency exit has been moved forward and now doubles as the crew access
door when the aircraft is fully loaded. Additionally, we have
depressurized the cargo area and installed a pressure bulk head just aft
of the cockpit. The benefits are reduced stress on the fuselage, less cost
and effort to install the cargo door, and improved engine performance by
reducing the use of the bleed air to pressurize and leaving it in the
engines.
The aircraft will be very competitive. It has more cargo volume than the Falcon 20....at a fraction of the direct operating cost. It will not require TCAS or RVSM to continue to operate at its service ceiling of 25,000 ft. It exceeds the capability of the cargo MU2, the Falcon, Metroliner, and Bandeirante. And it is currently stage III capable.
We have been working on the STC for more than three years. We were able to acquire the airframe engineering from British Aerospace. The STC will use a full finite element engineering analysis to access loads, fatigue and ultimate design. The highest level of analysis currently applied to aircraft design...normally only used on Part 25 aircraft.
As the Jetstream come out of passenger service cargo is the natural next life. There is currently a good availability of the aircraft. We are going to prioritize converting aircraft that we have purchased and will resell once the conversion is complete. The applications for the aircraft are endless. Air ambulance, overnight freight, auto cargo, military transport, airborne mapping...just to name a few. The key to the aircraft is its low operation cost, its reliability, and a good availability of aircraft and parts....with trained pilots and mechanics.
The STC will be finished and approved in the spring of 2003. Please contact us for additional information or to make arrangements for buying your first cargo Jetstream.