Dornier 328

Updated: October 2026 – A small high-wing aircraft taxis to the runway, the six-blade propellers spinning up, and the horizontal stabilizer sitting on top of the fin. It accelerates, lifts off after a short run and is out of sight surprisingly fast. Chances are you have just seen a Dornier 328. It is the last airliner to be developed and built entirely in Germany and, with around a hundred turboprops built, a true rarity for spotters. Here you will learn how to identify it with confidence, how it differs from the ATR, Dash 8 and its jet sister and where you still have a chance today.

What is the Dornier 328?

The Dornier 328 is a twin-engine regional turboprop with a pressurized cabin for 30 to 33 passengers. Dornier launched the program in December 1988 to close a gap in the market: between small feeders like its own Do 228 and the larger turboprops of around 40 to 50 seats, a fast, comfortable aircraft for thin routes was missing at the time.

It was built in Oberpfaffenhofen, southwest of Munich. At program launch, Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH belonged to Deutsche Aerospace. The first flight took place on December 6, 1991, with certification and entry into service following in October 1993. An early major customer was the US regional airline Horizon Air, which ordered 35 aircraft at once in May 1991 – at the time the largest single order for the type.

Technically, the 328 was ambitious for its size. It was the first Dornier aircraft with a pressurized cabin, the round fuselage is tuned for high cruise speed, and the wing goes back to the supercritical airfoil that Dornier had developed for the Do 228. In the cockpit sat a Honeywell glass cockpit with five screens, which was unusual in this class in the early 1990s. You can find more on the company’s history on the page for Dornier.

From Dornier project to Fairchild Dornier

The story of the 328 is closely tied to the upheavals in the European aviation industry in the 1990s. In June 1996, Deutsche Aerospace sold the majority of Dornier Luftfahrt to the US manufacturer Fairchild Aircraft. This created Fairchild Dornier, which continued production in Oberpfaffenhofen.

Under Fairchild Dornier, 1997 saw the go-ahead for the 328JET, a variant with jet engines based on the same airframe. It sold about as well as the turboprop version; together the family comes to a good 200 aircraft. In April 2002, Fairchild Dornier filed for insolvency. The rights to the 328 and 328JET first went to AvCraft Aviation, which itself failed after a few years.

In 2006, 328 Support Services took over the type certificate and handled maintenance and spare parts for the worldwide fleet. In 2015, Sierra Nevada Corporation bought the company. It later became Deutsche Aircraft, which supports the 328 today and is developing a modernized new edition in the D328eco (more on that below).

The three features that are enough to identify it

The 328 is not a frequent visitor, so a quick, reliable identification matters all the more. Three observations are enough in most cases.

Then there is the silhouette: the fuselage is slender and round, the nose tapers to a point, and the tail sweeps long and upward. The wings are straight and, at just under 21 meters of wingspan, comparatively short, and the engine nacelles sit fairly close to the fuselage. In the end, the registration confirms the type. The guide Understanding aircraft registrations explains how to read and look up registrations.

Dornier 328, ATR 42 or Dash 8?

Most mix-ups happen with other high-wing turboprops. The finder helps you narrow it down.

The ATR 42 is the trickiest case, because it is also a high-wing aircraft with a T-tail, its landing gear retracts into fuselage fairings and the current ATR 42-600 likewise carries six-blade propellers. The ATR, however, has a much larger wingspan, a broader fuselage and a rounder nose. Next to it, the 328 looks petite and stretched out. Older ATR versions such as the ATR 42-500 help with the comparison as well.

On the Dash 8-100, the landing gear is the key: it retracts into the long engine nacelles, and the early Dash 8s also have four-blade propellers. The Saab 340 and the Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia are low-wing aircraft – the wings sit low on the fuselage, so they are quickly ruled out. The guide Identifying turboprops provides a detailed comparison of further types.

Feature	Dornier 328	ATR 42	Dash 8-100	Saab 340
Wing position	High wing	High wing	High wing	Low wing
Tail	T-tail	T-tail	T-tail	conventional
Main landing gear	Fuselage fairing	Fuselage fairing	Engine nacelle	Engine nacelle
Seats (typical)	30–33	around 40–50	around 37–39	around 30–36
Look	slender, pointed nose	broad, blunt nose	long, drawn-out nacelles	wing low

Turboprop or jet: 328 and 328JET

The 328JET is the closest relative of the turboprop 328. Fuselage, tail and wing are largely the same, and the landing gear also sits in fuselage fairings. But instead of the turboprops, two jet engines hang on pylons under the wings. This difference is so clear that you can spot it even from a long way off.

In tracking services, the jet version appears as J328, the turboprop version as D328. So when you search for the type in a flight list, pay close attention to the first letter. The older, smaller Do 228 has an angular fuselage cross-section without a pressurized cabin and is filed under D228 – it is the predecessor from which the 328 took its wing.

Where to find the Dornier 328 today

The 328’s heyday in European scheduled service was in the 1990s and 2000s. Today the type flies mostly away from the big hubs: on charter and on-demand flights, in corporate shuttle service, on special missions and with some smaller regional airlines worldwide. In the mid-2010s, according to relevant compilations, well over half of the 328s built were still in service; how many there are as of October 2026 cannot be said reliably without current fleet data.

Among the best-known European operators for years was Denmark’s Sun-Air of Scandinavia, which in the mid-2010s was among the largest operators of the 328 family. In Germany, on-demand and charter companies from the Munich and Mannheim areas, among others, flew the type. Whether individual operators still fly the 328 today is best checked currently in fleet databases or tracking services.

The 328 also plays a role with the military. The US Air Force Special Operations Command has used converted aircraft since 2013 as the C-146A Wolfhound for personnel and cargo transport. These aircraft occasionally turn up at European airfields too.

Place	Chance of a hit	Why
Munich / Oberpfaffenhofen area	medium	Historic production site, development and flight testing by Deutsche Aircraft, on-demand traffic
Leipzig/Halle	low to medium	Site of D328eco final assembly, factory and ferry flights possible
Regional airports in Scandinavia and Germany	low to medium	Charter and on-demand flights with small turboprops
Large hubs such as Frankfurt	low	Hardly any scheduled service with the type

Because many 328 flights are on-demand or factory flights without a fixed schedule, live ADS-B tracking is your best bet. The article Tracking an aircraft by registration shows how to find individual aircraft. And you can judge how rare your sighting really is with the guide Judging the rarity of a sighting.

Spotting tips: small airports, short windows

The 328 is an aircraft for spotters with patience and good preparation. Large spotter hills such as the visitors’ hill at Munich Airport are good starting points, because besides scheduled traffic, business and on-demand flights are also handled there. You get more peace and often a better view of small turboprops at regional airports – the article Spotting at regional airports offers ideas.

If you have an eye on the type’s future, look to Leipzig: at Leipzig/Halle Airport, Deutsche Aircraft has based the final assembly of the D328eco. From the observation deck at Leipzig/Halle, you mainly see cargo traffic, but with a bit of luck factory movements too.

Photo tips especially for the Dornier 328

The 328 is an elegant, compact subject. Because it is small, at large airports you need more focal length than for jets.

You work out in advance when the light is right – how is covered in the guide Planning the sun position for your photo spot. With Planetrack, you also get weather, wind and active runways at the airport at a glance and see in the sun position planner when your spot is in the best light.

The future: the D328eco from Leipzig

The 328 is one of the few types to get a new edition decades after production ended. Deutsche Aircraft is developing a stretched version for up to 40 passengers in the D328eco. Planned are Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127XT-S engines and a modern cockpit. For prototype construction, fuselage sections of existing 328s were used, and series final assembly is based in Leipzig/Halle. At the end of September 2026, the company opened its final assembly line there; development, certification and flight testing remain in Oberpfaffenhofen.

Schedules for first flight, certification and first delivery have shifted several times in the past. If you want to know the exact status, check directly with Deutsche Aircraft – and keep your eyes open: a D328eco test aircraft would be a highlight for any spotter.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The Dornier 328 is a piece of German aviation history you can still experience live. T-tail, six-blade propellers and landing gear fairings on the fuselage give you the type, the registration the confirmation. Because it has become rare and often flies without a fixed schedule, every sighting is doubly worthwhile. And with the D328eco from Leipzig, the story from Oberpfaffenhofen may get a new chapter. Anyone who wants to dive deeper into the company’s history should plan a visit to the Dornier Museum Friedrichshafen.