The Cessna 208 Caravan is a utility aircraft produced by Cessna. The project was commenced on November 20, 1981, and the prototype first flew on December 9, 1982. The production model was certified by the FAA in October 1984 and its Cargomaster freighter variant was developed for FedEx. The 4 ft longer 208B Super Cargomaster first flew in 1986 and was developed into the passenger 208B Grand Caravan. The strutted, high wing 208 typically seats nine passengers in its unpressurized cabin, is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A tractor turboprop and has a fixed tricycle landing gear, floats, or skis. By 2022, 3,000 had been delivered and 24 million flight hours have been logged. Caravans have been used for flight training, commuter airlines, VIP transport, air cargo, skydiving and humanitarian missions.

Development

On November 20, 1981, the project was given a go-ahead by Cessna for its Pawnee engineering facility. John Berwick, chief engineer at Pawnee, conceived of a single engine, high-wing airplane with a large payload. Berwick had originally approached Vice President Bill Boettger with the idea and once Dwane Wallace approved it, Berwick told Russ Meyer he would design it. The prototype first flew on December 9, 1982. The production model was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in October 1984. Deliveries began in 1985, and amphibious floats were approved that same year. A freighter variant without cabin windows was developed at the request of Federal Express as the Cargomaster. FedEx had been initially planning to build twin-engine piston-powered airplanes with Piper Aircraft, but picked the Caravan after surveying it and having flown the prototype, becoming its standard carrier. Another cargo variant for Federal Express, with a longer fuselage and a cargo pod under the belly, was developed as the 208B Super Cargomaster and flew for the first time in 1986. Stretched by 4 feet, it received its FAA type certification also in 1986. A passenger model, the 208B Grand Caravan, was derived from the Super Cargomaster. It was first delivered in 1990. Since then, the Caravan has undergone a number of design evolutions, including upgrading the avionics in 2008 to provide a glass cockpit with the Garmin G1000 system. In January 2013 a higher-powered (867 shp from P&WC PT6A-140) version, the Grand Caravan EX, received FAA certification. In August 2016, Textron announced that it would move the Cessna 208 production line from its Wichita headquarters to its Independence, Kansas, production facility, for manufacture alongside along the piston-powered 172, 182, 206 and TTx, and the Citation M2 light jet. The move was made to make room for production of the Citation Longitude and Denali in Wichita. In 2023, the 208 Caravan unit cost was US$2.32 million and US$2.61 million for the 208B Grand Caravan EX.

Chinese production

In May 2012, Cessna announced that an assembly line for the 208 would be established in China, with the government-owned China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (CAIGA) conducting final assembly of Caravans at its plant in Shijiazhuang for the Chinese market. Chinese government approval was granted in September the following year and the first Chinese-assembled Caravan was delivered in December 2013. By April 2016 about 30 aircraft, assembled from kits of parts shipped from the US by Cessna, had been delivered to Chinese operators by the joint venture.

Design

The Cessna 208 is a high-wing braced cabin monoplane powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A turboprop in tractor configuration. The cabin has room for nine passengers and two crew when used as a passenger aircraft with four doors: one for each crew member, an airstair door on the right side of the cabin and a cargo door on the left. The aircraft can be optionally fitted with an underslung cargo pod. The basic 208 airframe has a fixed tricycle landing gear but can also be fitted with various types of landing gear, allowing it to operate in a wide variety of environments. Some common adaptations include floats with retractable landing gear on the Caravan Amphibian model, and skis. The Caravan interior can be outfitted with seats or as a cargo compartment. The standard high-density airline configuration has four rows of 1-2 seating behind the two seats in the cockpit. This variant is capable of holding up to thirteen passengers, although it is marketed as being able to make a profit carrying just four. The cabin can be configured in a low density passenger configuration, with 1-1 seating, as a combination of passengers and cargo, or as a strictly cargo aircraft. Many variants include an underbelly cargo pod, which can be used for additional freight capacity, or for passenger baggage. A number of Caravans are operated as skydiving aircraft with the left-side cargo hatch converted to a roll-up door. The airplane typically seats nine passengers with a single pilot, although with a FAR Part 23 waiver it can seat up to fourteen passengers. The aircraft is also used for cargo operations. The short-fuselage Caravan burns 48 USgal of fuel per hour at 170 kn for 200 nmi stages.

Operational history

In August 2021, fearing Taliban reprisals, pilots of the Afghan Air Force made a last minute escape from Kabul to Tajikistan on an AC-208 moments before the city fell to the Taliban. In November 2021, Egyptian Army Cessna 208s were used to fight smugglers in western Egypt. On May 11, 2022, a Cessna 208 pilot became incapacitated resulting in a passenger with no flight experience successfully making an emergency landing at Palm Beach International Airport. The passenger was assisted by Air Traffic Controller Robert Morgan, a certified flight instructor. On November 21, 2023, a Cessna 208 flew for the first time without any human on board. The plane was modified by Reliable Robotics to fly autonomously with a remote pilot able to send commands to the aircraft from 50 miles away via satellite communication to the onboard flight computers.

Variants

Civilian

Aftermarket variants

Production aircraft modified after delivery by Supplemental Type Certificates:

Experimental

The eCaravan is an electric aircraft modification of the 208B built by AeroTEC and magniX powered by a 750 hp motor and a 1 tonne, 750 V lithium-ion battery. The plane's 30-minute first flight happened from Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, on May 28, 2020, consuming US$6 worth of electricity, needing 30–40 min of charging. The Magni500-powered variant can fly 100 nmi with 4–5 passengers while keeping reserve power, and aims for a certification by the end of 2021, hoping to operate 100 nmi flights with a full load of nine passengers with better batteries.

Military

Operators

The 1,000th was delivered in 1998; the 1,500th in 2005; the 2,000th in 2010; the 2,500th in 2015; and the 3,000th in 2022. By March 2022, 24 million flight hours have been logged. Certified in 100 countries, Caravans are used for flight training, recreation, commuter airlines, VIP transport, cargo carriers and humanitarian missions. It is also used by government agencies in law enforcement, air ambulance services, police and military.

Civil operators

The Cessna 208 is used by governmental organizations and by a large number of companies for police, air ambulance, passenger transport, air charter, freight and parachuting operations. FedEx operates 239 aircraft.

Military operators

A total of 123 Cessna 208s were in military service as transport in 2024.

Accidents

As of 31 December 2017, there have been 216 Caravan hull losses from all causes, including 206 accidents causing 427 fatalities – an average of fatalities per hull-loss, with 29.7% of all occupants surviving fatal accidents; and six hijackings causing one fatality. For the 198 out of the 216 hull-loss occurrences where the aircraft was in use and its flight nature is known, 36.9% were passenger flights, 33.8% cargo flights, 8.1% military flights, 5.6% special flights – agriculture, survey, etc., 4% private and business flights, 3% test or flight training and 8.1% miscellaneous uses – demonstrations, deliveries, illegal.

Specifications (208 Caravan)

[Left: three-axis view of 208 Caravan Amphibian and side view of standard 208 Caravan

Right: 208B Grand Caravan with side views of Super Cargomaster and standard versions. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Caravan///three///views.png]