The first Britten-Norman Islander to be built entirely at Bembridge from detail-level components has completed its maiden flight, validating the production line the manufacturer has established on the Isle of Wight.

Serial 2317 took off from Bembridge Airport at 14:25 on Thursday 3 September, five weeks after being rolled out of the factory, watched from the apron by the engineering and production teams. It flew from the same runway used by the Islander prototype for its maiden flight in June 1965, a few hundred metres from where the company was founded.

Islander airframes were previously built under sub-contract in Bucharest from 1968 and brought to the Isle of Wight for fit-out, customisation and certification, with design authority, the type certificate and production control held in the UK throughout. From 2009 the arrangement moved to major sub-assemblies delivered to Bembridge by road. Aircraft 2317 is the first to be built up from individual components at Bembridge, putting the whole assembly sequence, tooling and quality gates in the company’s own hands.

Britten-Norman has grown from around 100 staff in 2024 to around 180 today, has invested in tooling and facilities, and is working towards a production rate of eight aircraft a year. A second airframe is progressing through the line and components for the aircraft behind it are already on order. The company, the UK’s only civil A2 approved aircraft manufacturer, holds letters of intent with operators across the regional passenger and special mission sectors.

Richard Milne, chief operating officer, says: “Operators want to know two things: will the aircraft do the job, and will it arrive when we said it would. Assembling the airframe here is how we settle the second, because it puts the sequence, the tooling and the quality standard in our own hands.”

Pete Dowers, who joined Bembridge’s apprentice training school in September 1978 and delivered the line’s first turbine Islander in 1981, built 2317 as his 500th aircraft in almost 50 years on the line. Production manager Callum Trueman, who began his apprenticeship under Dowers in 2006, worked alongside him on the build. Trueman says: “This aircraft is Pete’s 500th and my first, and the next one is already on the line.”

Flight testing continues, covering performance, handling and the short take-off and landing characteristics for which the Islander is known. On completion, 2317 will move into the final stages of its programme ahead of delivery to the Falkland Islands Government Aviation Service, which will fly it between settlements across the archipelago. Around 350 Islanders are in service across more than 70 countries, with the fleet having flown some 20 million hours on Lycoming O-540 and IO-540 powerplants and Hartzell variable-pitch propellers.