The new(ish) company will build and market the latest version of the Dash-8 -- the Q400 -- from the plant in Downsview (now a part of Toronto) where it started business in Canada in the 1920s. During World War II, its DHC-1 Chipmunk became the backbone of the Commonwealth Air Forces training programme.
Longview paid C$300 million ($223 million in real money) for the rights to Bombardier's Q Series of aircraft, originally known as the Dash-8, comprising the 100, 200 and 300 series, all turboprop regional jets which seat 40 to 90 passengers. The Dash-8 is in use not only by Canadian airlines like Porter, but all over the world, and is known for its economy and reliability.
Another Longview subsidiary, Viking Air Ltd., based in British Columbia, still produces the famous de Havilland Beaver and Twin Otter aircraft, workhorses of the Canadian North and other remote areas. If you're headed for Kathmandu, for instance, you may well get there (and safely too) in a Nepal Airlines Twin Otter.
David Curtis, chairman of the Longview, said in a statement de Havilland Aircraft would take on board more than 1200 employees from Bombardier. He previously pledged to keep all manufacturing already in Canada within the country and to maintain supply chains for the Q400 series that currently stretch from China to Ireland to Mexico. Bombardier manufactured roughly 28 to 30 Q400s annually at the Downsview plant.
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