Welcome to the ninth regular installment of The Aircraft of MDT. In this series we are taking a look at some of the aircraft that you may spot flying to and from Harrisburg International Airport.
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| A Shorts 360 on the AvFlight apron. |
The Shorts 360 (SD3-60) was introduced as a 36-39 passenger aircraft in 1981 by the Short Brothers company of Northern Ireland. The 360 was a derivative of the company’s 30 seat Shorts 330, itself based on the Short SC.7 Skyvan, a 19 passenger airliner introduced in the early 1960s. Although the 330 and 360 share an otherwise distinctive boxy cabin and have similar dimensions, the 360 is easy to distinguish from its smaller sibling because of its tail. The 360 has a single vertical stabilizer, while the 330 sports an H-tail design. Manufacture of the 360 ended in 1991 after a total production run of 165.
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Interior of a Shorts 360 converted
for use as a freighter. |
Due to their large square fuselage, the Shorts 360 and its predecessors have been very popular as cargo aircraft. At Harrisburg International Airport, you may see the 360 near the west end of the property, at the facilities of
AvFlight, the fixed base operator (FBO) at MDT. The 360 is used to pick up cargo for DHL Aviation.
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| Extra storage in the nose. |
The United States Army also uses the Shorts 360. The military version is called the C-23B+/C Super Sherpa. It is cousin to the C-23A/B Sherpa flown by the US Air Force and Army National Guard, a military version of the Shorts 330. Interestingly, when the military buys 360s, they remove the single tail and restore the twin-tail and large rear cargo ramp of the 330.
Cool story! I flew as a passenger on Shorts 360s in South America. It was a fun plane to fly in. Since the wings are above the fuselage, you got a really good view of the terrain that you were flying over.
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