Sunday, August 9, 2009

Owned by a Washington state-based company called Challenger Administration LLC on Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates' behalf, this Bombardier B


Although Blockbuster founder and Miami Dolphins pro football team owner Wayne Huizenga also owns a 737-700 Boeing Business Jet painted in his team's colors, his Twin Otter seaplane is especially interesting. Bearing the tail number N300WH and Miami Dolphins colors, the aircraft appears in a seaplane chase scene in the new version of the James Bond film "Casino Royale." One of the most rugged and reliable utility transport aircraft ever built, the unpressurized Twin Otter carries up to 19 people and can take off and land from rough strips as short as 100 yards. Many Twin Otters were fitted with skis or floats for operation in snow or from water. De Havilland Canada -- now Bombardier -- stopped manufacturing the Twin Otter in 1988 after building more than 840. But the type has proved so irreplaceable throughout the world -- including the Antarctic -- that a company called Viking Air bought the production rights from Bombardier and is planning to restart production at an assembly line at Calgary, Alberta in December.

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