De Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7

Updated: October 2026 – A high-wing aircraft with four propellers floats in at an angle that would make any jet pilot nervous, touches down and stands still after a few hundred meters: that is what everyday life looked like at the young London City Airport in the 1980s. The aircraft behind it was the De Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7, a four-engine short-field turboprop that was brilliant as a concept and difficult as a business model. Today only a handful of them still fly. Here you learn how to identify the Dash 7, why it is so special and where you can still catch the last examples.

What is the Dash 7?

In the early 1970s De Havilland Canada was occupied with a question that sounds topical again today: how do you bring an airliner as close as possible to city centers without burdening residents with noise? The manufacturer from Downsview near Toronto had already gathered a lot of experience with short-field aircraft through types like the DHC-6 Twin Otter. Now a larger aircraft for scheduled service was needed that could cope with runways of only about 600 meters. Originally 40 seats were targeted; in the end it was 50 to 54.

The program started in 1972, and the prototype first flew on March 27, 1975. On February 3, 1978, the US regional airline Rocky Mountain Airways took over the first production aircraft, which flew mainly to ski resorts in Colorado. The result was an aircraft you can hardly confuse with anything else: a high-wing aircraft with a tall T-tail and four Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-50 turboprops with about 1,120 shaft horsepower each. You can read more about the engine maker on the page for Pratt & Whitney.

Why four engines?

At first glance the Dash 7 looks over-engined. Four engines on a 50-seater are expensive to buy and maintain. But the manufacturer had good reasons:

• Plenty of air over the wings: the four propellers blow their airflow over a large part of the wingspan. Together with large-area double-slotted flaps, the wing thereby generates a lot of lift even at very low speed.
• Forgiving in an engine failure: if one of four engines fails, three quarters of the power remain, and the asymmetric thrust is small. Especially on steep approaches and short runways, that is a safety gain.
• Quiet: because four propellers share the work, they could be large and turn slowly. That cut noise significantly, a decisive argument for city airports.

The price was high operating costs. Many regional airlines did not need the extreme short-field capabilities at all and would have preferred an economical twin-engine aircraft. De Havilland Canada later filled exactly this gap with the Dash 8-100, which adopted many basic features of the Dash 7.

The Dash 7 and London City Airport

The best-known story of the Dash 7 takes place in London. In the early 1980s the old Docklands in the east of the city lay idle. The regional airline Brymon Airways and the construction company Mowlem proposed in 1981 to build a small city airport there for short-field aircraft. To prove that it would work, Brymon captain Harry Gee set a Dash 7 down on Heron Quays, in the middle of the dock area, on June 27, 1982.

The trial was convincing. On May 31, 1987 the first aircraft landed at the new London City Airport, and on October 26, 1987 scheduled service began, to Plymouth, Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, among others. The runway was then only a good 1,000 meters long, and for noise reasons the glide path was 7.5 degrees, more than twice as steep as the usual approach angle of three degrees. Hardly any airliner other than the Dash 7 and the small Dornier 228 could cope with that.

That changed in 1992: the runway was extended and the approach angle reduced to 5.5 degrees. That allowed jets like the BAe 146 to operate for the first time, and the Dash 7 lost its special position. The steep approach has remained to this day and still requires special approval for aircraft and crew.

The variants at a glance

Given the small production run, there were surprisingly many versions. From the outside they hardly differ, most likely by a cargo door at the front left on the combi versions.

Variant	Special feature
DHC-7-100 / -102	Passenger version with up to 54 seats
DHC-7-101 / -103	Combi for passengers and cargo, up to 50 seats, cargo door at front left
DHC-7-110 / -111	Versions of the -102 and -103 with British certification
DHC-7-150 / -151	improved version with higher takeoff weight and more fuel
DHC-7-150IR	One-off for ice and environmental patrols by Transport Canada
CC-132	Designation with the Canadian Armed Forces
O-5A, EO-5B, EO-5C	Reconnaissance conversions for the US Army

A footnote with a German connection: from 1979 until 1987 the Canadian Armed Forces used two CC-132s at their then base in Lahr in Baden. And the US Army still flies converted Dash 7s as reconnaissance platforms, most recently designated EO-5C. You can follow such aircraft best with the tips from the article Tracking military aircraft online.

How to identify the Dash 7 with confidence

The Dash 7 is one of those types you can identify from a long way off with a little practice. Four observations are enough.

In tracking you find it under the type code DHC7. Because only a few aircraft still fly, a look at the registration is worthwhile: many examples have a long history with several airlines. How to find out an aircraft’s year of manufacture and history is covered in the guide How old is this aircraft?.

The Dash 7 compared with similar types

Four-engine regional aircraft are rare, and that is exactly why the Dash 7 is easy to identify. Still, there are types that look similar at first glance.

Type	Engines	Tail	Quick difference
Dash 7	4 turboprops	T-tail	High wing, extreme STOL talent
Dash 8-100	2 turboprops	T-tail	same basic shape, but only two engines
Dash 8-300	2 turboprops	T-tail	about the same size, two engines
BAe 146	4 jets	T-tail	also four engines and a high wing, but jet engines
Shorts 360	2 turboprops	conventional	angular fuselage, struts on the wing
ATR 42-300	2 turboprops	T-tail	only two engines, gear in fuselage fairings

The most interesting mix-up is the BAe 146: it also has four engines, a high-set wing and a T-tail and replaced the Dash 7 at London City. As soon as you look at the engines, though, it is clear: the 146 has jets, the Dash 7 propellers. The big overview of turboprops is given in the article Telling turboprops apart.

Operators: then and now

Traces in Europe

In Europe the Dash 7 had its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. Tyrolean Airways began scheduled service with the type in 1980 and flew it until 1996. From its base at Innsbruck Airport, the Tyroleans also used its abilities for demanding mountain airfields such as Courchevel in France. In Norway, Widerøe used the Dash 7 on short runways before the Dash 8 took over. Other former operators included Air Greenland, Israel’s Arkia and Adria Airways. In Great Britain, Brymon Airways and London City Airways shaped the start in the Docklands.

Today you no longer meet a Dash 7 in scheduled service in Europe. If you stand at the Innsbruck observation deck, you see its successors there – but can easily imagine how well the short-field aircraft fitted into this narrow Alpine valley.

The last active Dash 7s

According to fleet overviews from spring 2026, about 16 Dash 7s were still in service worldwide. The distribution, as of those overviews:

• Canada: Air Tindi from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories operates the largest remaining fleet with six aircraft. In addition there is a one-off that Transport Canada uses for ice and environmental patrols.
• USA: the US Army uses several converted Dash 7s for reconnaissance missions.
• Kenya: Airkenya Express operates two aircraft.
• Antarctica: the British Antarctic Survey uses one Dash 7 to supply its research stations.

Region	Chance of a sighting	Why
Northern Canada (Yellowknife and surroundings)	medium to high	Air Tindi flies the largest remaining civil fleet
Kenya	medium	Airkenya Express with two aircraft
Central Europe	very low	at most ferry flights, military overflights or maintenance flights
London City Airport	practically zero	the type is part of history there

Spotting tips for a rarity

Catching a Dash 7 is more of a hunt than a coincidence. That is exactly what makes it so appealing to many spotters. How to judge the rarity of a sighting is explained in the article How rare is my sighting?, and you will find more candidates for your list under Spotting rare aircraft.

Because the remaining Dash 7s mostly fly away from the big hubs, a good notification helps you more than any fleet list. How to set up such alerts with various services is shown in the guide Setting up notifications for aircraft, types and airlines.

Photo tips specifically for the Dash 7

The Dash 7 as part of the big four-engine story

The Dash 7 is one of the last newly developed four-engine turboprops for civil scheduled service. After it, the industry almost everywhere relied on two engines because that is simply cheaper. The big four-engine jets on long-haul routes later met a similar fate, as the article The end of the four-engine jets shows. Dash 7 production ended in 1988 after Boeing had taken over De Havilland Canada. Later the company belonged to Bombardier; today it again carries the old name. You can read the whole company history on the page for De Havilland Canada.

A sad side also belongs to the history: the worst accident of a Dash 7 happened on May 6, 1988 in Norway, when Widerøe Flight 710 crashed near Brønnøysund and 36 people died.

If you are generally interested in older types that only rarely appear in the sky today, the guide Recognizing classic aircraft in the sky is a good next step.

Conclusion

The Dash 7 was ahead of its time in many ways: quiet, extremely short-field-capable and rugged enough for mountain airfields, the Arctic and Antarctica. Without it London City Airport would probably not have existed in this form. Economically, though, four engines remained a handicap, and so only a good 110 aircraft were built. Today it is a real trophy for any spotter.