Cessna 208 Caravan
 Cessna 208 Caravan. Photo: Lt. Col. Scott Voskovitch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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| Make | Cessna |
|---|---|
| Model | Cessna 208 Caravan |
| Type | Regional airliner, utility aircraft |
| Country |  United States
|
| First flight | December 9, 1982 |
| Built | 1982–present |
| Status | In service |
| Number built | 3,000 (2022) |
| Registered in the US | 980 (FAA register, October 30, 2026) |
| Seats | 1 or 2, 9 passengers (13 with FAR Part 23 waiver) |
| Engine | Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114A, 675 shp |
| Cruise speed | 186 kn (208 Caravan) |
| Range | 1,070 nmi (208 Caravan) |
| Service ceiling | 25,000 ft (208 Caravan) |
| Max weight | 8,000 lb (208 Caravan)
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The Cessna 208 Caravan is a single-engine turboprop utility airplane built by Cessna. It has a strut-braced high wing, usually seats nine passengers in an unpressurized cabin, uses one Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A turboprop, and lands on fixed tricycle gear, floats or skis. By 2022 Cessna had delivered 3,000 Caravans, which had flown 24 million hours on flight training, commuter airlines, VIP flights, cargo, skydiving and humanitarian missions.[1] In the U.S. there are 980 with a valid registration, 821 of them the stretched 208B.[2]
History
Cessna approved the project on November 20, 1981, at its Pawnee engineering facility. Chief engineer John Berwick conceived a single-engine, high-wing airplane with a large payload. The prototype first flew on December 9, 1982, the FAA certified the production model in October 1984, and deliveries began in 1985, the same year amphibious floats were approved.[1]
The freight-only Cargomaster was developed for FedEx. The 208B Super Cargomaster, 4 feet longer, first flew in 1986 and was developed into the passenger 208B Grand Caravan.[1]
Design
The cabin seats nine passengers and two crew, with four doors: one for each pilot, an airstair door on the right and a cargo door on the left. An underslung cargo pod is optional, and the landing gear can be swapped for floats or skis to work almost anywhere.[1]
Registered in the United States
The FAA register lists 980 of these airplanes with a valid U.S. registration. Here they are by the model name the FAA uses.[2]
| FAA model name | Registered |
|---|---|
| 208B | 821 |
| 208 | 158 |
| 208A | 1 |
Specifications (208 Caravan)
| Item | 208 Caravan |
|---|---|
| Crew | 1 or 2 |
| Passengers / capacity | 9 passengers (13 with FAR Part 23 waiver) |
| Length | 37 ft 7 in |
| Wingspan | 52 ft 1 in |
| Height | 14 ft 11 in |
| Wing area | 279 sq ft |
| Empty weight | 4,730 lb |
| Maximum takeoff weight | 8,000 lb |
| Fuel | 2,224 lb (1,009 kg) / 332 US gal (1,257 L) |
| Engine | Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114A, 675 shp (turboprop) |
| Propeller | McCauley constant speed, full feathering, reversible pitch |
| Cruise speed | 186 kn |
| Stall speed | 61 kn |
| Range | 1,070 nmi |
| Service ceiling | 25,000 ft |
| Rate of climb | 1,234 ft/min |
Figures as given in the Wikipedia article and its sources.[1]
Photos
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Cessna 208 Caravan. Photo: AlfvanBeem, CC0 -
Cessna 208 Caravan. Photo: Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0 -
Cessna 208 Caravan. Photo: Bill Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0 -
MSN 2213 CESSNA 208B ZUNI LLC GCN. Photo: Eric Salard, CC BY-SA 2.0 -
G-MDJE Cessna 208 Caravan I Loch Lomond Seaplanes starting take-off run on Loch Lomond. Photo: Mark Harkin, CC BY 2.0 -
c/n 208B-0207. Photo: Alan Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0 -
Cessna 208 Caravan. Photo: Marc Lacoste, CC BY-SA 4.0
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All photos are from Wikimedia Commons; click a photo for its full credit and license.
Buying a Cessna 208 Caravan
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Wikipedia, "Cessna 208 Caravan", read November 1, 2026. Airplane Wiki's text is written in its own words; facts are checked against this article and its sources.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Federal Aviation Administration, Releasable Aircraft Database, file dated October 30, 2026. Valid registrations of fixed-wing airplanes whose FAA maker and model names belong to this family. Airplane Wiki uses only counts from this file, never owner names or addresses.