Featured Map for 18 April 2019:
360

Today's Featured Map is the 360th Featured Map. Rather than full-circle puns, the Short 360 seems like a worthy topic. Built by Short Brothers PLC ("Shorts") in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Short 360 was developed from the smaller Short 330 (itself a derivative of the SC.7 Skyvan) and first flew on 1 June 1981. Listed as the SD3-60 on the type certificate, a total of 165 examples were built for commercial operators and another 62 were built as the C-23 Sherpa for military service, with the last ones being built after the 1989 acquisition of Short Brothers by Bombardier. The boxy fuselage of the unpressurized Short 360 led to its nickname: The Shed.

Air Cargo Carriers (ACC), based at Milwaukee, is the largest current operator of Short Brothers aircraft with 25 of the Short 360 in their fleet (plus four Short 330s and a few Cessna Caravans).

Today's Featured Map shows Air Cargo Carriers' scheduled flying, most or all operated using the Short 360. The bulk of the routes (blue) are operated daily or at least weekdays; a few routes (green) are only operated Friday nights and Saturday mornings. Most of the flying is focused on Louisville, with a smaller grouping focused on Columbia, South Carolina and a Caribbean network focused on San Juan. Two isolated routes within the continguous United States (red) operate between Cincinnati (Covington) and Harrisburg and within Arizona.

References and additional information:

• Type Certificate Data Sheet No. A4IEU – Federal Aviation Administration
• Military Factory
  • Short 360: Light Utility Transport Aircraft
  • Short C-23 Sherpa: Twin-Engine Utility Multirole Transport Aircraft
• About Us – Bombardier United Kingdom
• Air Cargo Carriers
  • History
  • Scheduled Routes