DORNIER”S 728JET programme is not completely dead and could yet see the light of day. Perhaps the only major commercial aircraft to be publicly rolled out and never flown (even the Hughes flying boat made a brief hop), the Fairchild Dornier 728 was conceived as a twin-engined regional aircraft with the same efficient cross section as the AVRO RJ series, picking up substantial pre-first flight orders. Fairchild Dornier went into liquidation in April 2002, the programme recently acquired by the Chinese company D”Long. They have contracted IABG, a leading provider of aircraft structure tests, who were involved with the original design, to continue with static testing of a prototype airframe. This investment augers well for an eventual first flight and continuation with the project. http://www.iabg.de