Country of origin:

United States of America

Description:

Light commercial airliner and business and executive aircraft

Power Plant:

Two 298 kw (400 hp) Lycoming IO-720 six-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engines

Specifications:

History:

Following the success of the de Havilland Dove a number of companies sought to improve the product to increase performance.  Quite a number of the 530 Doves produced were sold in America and American distributor Riley Aeronautics Corporation of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in addition to selling new aircraft, had made a name for itself specialising in conversion of a number of American aircraft, these including the twin-engine variant of the Riley Navion, an executive conversion of the Cessna 310 series, and modifying airframes to take supercharged engines.

Jack Riley of this company had sold 55 Doves in the United States and his company developed the Riley Turbo Executive 400, which was virtually a new aircraft rather than a converted Dove, but looked similar.  Changes involved the removal of the fin and fitting a new swept fin and rudder with 18 per cent greater area; removal of cockpit fittings and remodelling of it to a modern layout, re-routing control runs, switching panel placement, installing new crew seats and cabin restyling.  The main cabin door was removed and a new power operated air-stair was installed.

The cabin was completely stripped and new furnishings and soundproofing were fitted to meet customer requirements. New carpeting was installed, double-pane windows, a re-designed toilet area and a respray of the aircraft in customer colours. Power for the Riley Turbo Executive was the Lycoming IO-720 direct drive engine with Riley dual turbo-superchargers driving Hartzell three-blade fully-feathering propellers.  First aircraft converted to Executive 400 configuration in 1966 was N7772S, first flown in 1963, which was delivered to a customer in Venezuela.

The new model was developed as a private venture by Riley Aeronautics and ultimately de Havilland agreed to supply new airframes for the Company to produce its new model.  The Executive 400 could carry seven passengers, each with 19 kg (42 lb) of baggage, and the pilot, non-stop 2,388 km (1,484 miles) with IFR fuel including diversion and holding; or eleven passengers, each with 7 kg (15 lb) of baggage, and the pilot non-stop 463 km (288 miles) with full IFR fuel including diversion and holding.

At one stage in the mid-1960s Keegan Aviation Ltd in the United Kingdom was seeking an Australian firm to represent it in possible sales of the Turbo Exececutive 400 in Australia and New Zealand, advertising that a licence to convert local based Doves would be granted to a suitable company, with either brand new or re-manufactured models available for early delivery.

Other modifications were made to the Dove airframe, one of these being the Carstedt Jet Liner 600 which was fitted with Garrett AiResearch turboprops.

First reference to a Riley aircraft in Australia took place in May 1965 when Michael Keegan of Keegan Aviation visited Australia and sought to obtain a contract to convert the six de Havilland Doves then being operated by the Northern Territory Medical Service to Dove 400 configuration but nothing came of this.  Some years later an Australian operator sought to import two Doves which had been modified to Executive 400 configuration by McAlpine Aviation in the United Kingdom and these two aircraft were imported as VH-ABK and VH-ABM.

VH-ABK (c/n 04113 – YI-ABL, TJ-ACB, D-101 Jordanian Air Force, ex G-ATGJ) was converted to Executive 400 standard in 1970 and imported in April 1974 for Central Australian Airways Pty Ltd of Adelaide, SA.  However, the commuter airline ceased operations in November 1976 and the aircraft was leased to North Coast Airlines.  It was struck off the register and sold to Pay’s Air Service Pty Ltd of Scone, NSW where it was stripped, the airframe being donated to the Kamarooka Aviation Museum at Prairie, VIC before going to the Ballarat Aviation Museum, VIC incomplete.

VH-ABM (c/n 04097 – ex G-ATGI) was, like VH-ABK, converted at Luton, UK by McAlpine Aviation Ltd.  It was flown to Australia in July 1974 and registered to Central Australian Airways of Adelaide. However, this company ceased operations in November 1976 when its routes were taken over by Williams Airlines and the aircraft was leased to North Coast Airlines.  It too was sold to Pay’s Air Service Pty Ltd of Scone and delivered in April 1980 to Scone.  It was noted at Bankstown, NSW in March 1981 and on 7 March 1982 it landed at Belmont, NSW where the undercarriage collapsed. Ownership was changed in 1986 to Sixth Canus Pty Ltd of Essendon, VIC and it entered service with Moloney Aviation of Essendon carrying tourists to Phillip Island, VIC.  It was retired at Moorabbin, VIC in 2007 and the airframe ended up for a period with the Derelict Aircraft Museum before being obtained by the DH-104 Preservation Group.

Further examples were imported. VH-NBM (c/n 04416 – ex XB-TEZ, N5553V), which was built as a Dove 2A, was later converted to Series 6A standard, was later converted by Riley Aeronautics, became N711BK, and was imported by Moloney Aviation of Melbourne, VIC in August 1987.  It was registered on 18 November that year to Sixth Canus Pty Ltd trading as Moloney Aviation of Essendon.  It was retired at Wallan Airfield, VIC and eventually taken to a farm at Rupanyup, VIC where it became derelict.

Two further retired aircraft were imported in 1990 by Moloney Aviation, these being unregistered aircraft to be used for spare parts for the Company’s other aircraft. These were N673R (c/n 04237 – ex CF-GYR) and N808RH (c/n 04040 –ex NC4950N, N777Rs and N711BF).

One Riley Dove is known to be airworthy overseas.  This machine N772S was refurbished in Vestavia Hills, Birmingham, Alabama. It was built as a Dove 6A at Hawarden, UK in 1956 (c/n 04467) and operated as YV-P-BAP in Venezuela before being taken to Riley Aeronautics in Florida where it was converted to Riley Turbo Executive 400 configuration.  Fitted with Lycoming IO-720 engines it returned to Venezuela until 1969 when it returned to Florida and eventually was fully restored.