Hester

Hesters current logo (2009)

## Notes

Stopped maintenance support to Volga-Dnepr Airlines due to Russian sanctions

**Hester LLC** or just simply **Hester** is an aircraft manufacturer company founded in the 1980s.

## History

The company was founded by Grodin Hester (1958-2003) which was a former BOAC and British Airways pilot and retired in 1982 and founded Hester 2 years later in 6 March 1984.

Hester started manufacturing military aircraft in 1985 for the Royal Air Force, these aircraft include the Hester H-11, Hester H-19 and Hester H-14. The comapny later started manufacturing the Hester H-350 in 1987, a large cargo aircraft bigger than the Boeing 747-100 with lauch customer Cargolux in 1988 and had a maiden flight at the Farnborough Air Show in 1990 which led Atlas Air, FedEx, UPS and DHL to order the aircraft, FedEx and UPS later cancelled the orders and the orders were transferred to Atlas Air.

Hester continued manufacturing military and freight aircraft before creating the H-2300, a passenger turboprop aircraft which has its first flight in 2000 and lauched in 2002 with Merpati Nusantara Airlines, a regional airlines based in Indonesia. The aircraft stopped production in 2019 because of a plan to be replace with a new aircraft but its still unknown with 980 built (Last customer was UTAir, a Russian airline).

In 2003, Hester later delivered its first H-350 to Silk Way Airlines, a cargo airline from Azerbaijan.

In 2005, Hester later delivered its first H-350 to Volga-Dnepr Airlines, a cargo airline from Russia.

In 2013, Hester lauched an advanced military aircraft called the H-9200, a turboprop with fly-by-wire and air-to-air refueling.

In 2015, the first H-350 was delivered to Korean Air Cargo and Polar Air Cargo.

In 2017, an ex-Silk Way H-350, operating as Silk Way Airlines Flight 238 with regristration 4K-SW744, crashed in the Malacca Strait en route to Jakarta, Indonesia, the crash site is just 312.91 km away from Banda Aceh, Indonesia (6∘26'21"N 97∘59'57"E), the wreckage was later recovered and the cause of the crash was identified to be pilot error as the first officer accidently jammed the rudder due to overspeed which led to instrument failure and turned right, the plane continued flying for 6 minutes before all 4 engines failed due to the instrument failure and the plane later went into a nosedive and entered an uncontrollable spin which led to an in-flight breakup with its tail, nose and left wing torn off, this was the first fatal accident involving the H-350.

In 2018, the first H-350 was delivered to the Ukrainian Air Force, modefied with air-to-air refueling, cargo door on the rear of the tail and a larger fuel tank. Hester also stopped production of the Hester H-11 after 33 years of production and over 1,982 of them were built.

In 2022, following the Russo-Ukrainian Invasion, Hester had to stop maintenance support for Volga-Dnepr Airlines due to the sanctions in February 24 and an ex-Ukrainian Air Force H-350 (reg: UR-ANO) was destroyed by fire at Hostomel Airport in Feburary 27 along with the only AN-225, both aircraft were hit by a missile and both aircraft caught fire and were both written off

## Gallery

a Hester H-350 on approach to London Heathrow in 2018an Air Canada Cargo Hester H-350 taking off from London Heathrow on December 29th, 2021. Air Canada Cargo operated the cargo jet since October 1st, 2021 so the H-350 picted here was 3 months old at the time.