The KLM Flight Academy has added a new training aircraft to its fleet based at Groningen Airport Eelde. The device is a Diamond DA42 Twinstar, and is a lot quieter and more durable than the teaching devices that were used before. Local residents have already stated several times that they experience nuisance due to too noisy training flights.
The new aircraft is the Flight Academy’s fourth Diamond Twinstar, and completes the twin-engine group of aircraft, which consists of 16 aircraft in total. “Due to, among other things, corona, we still have backlogs in our planning that we can now quickly resolve. After that, this device will enable us to take the less economical and more noise-inducing Socata TB20 aircraft out of use in the foreseeable future,” says director of the flying academy, Bart de Vries.
The DA42 is therefore more economical than the older aircraft and flies on kerosene instead of petrol, just like commercial aircraft. This makes it possible to switch to biofuel at a later date.
Currently, electric aircraft are also under development in the United States. The flight school has already taken options on these aircraft to replace the single-engine aircraft in the long term. These are expected to be available within four to five years.