Shorts 330 / C-23 Sherpa

THE AIRCRAFT

Meet Shorts 330 / C-23 Sherpa

The Shorts 330 combines twin turboprops, a high wing and a box-shaped cabin in a short-sector transport. BlackBox’s Regional Series also represents the military C-23 branches, retaining their separate cabin and mission configurations. The 330 and later 360 share a product package but have different airframes and flap-position tables.

The systems manual describes rods and cables operating the primary controls, with trim tabs in pitch, roll and yaw. Hydraulic services operate other equipment without boosting those primary surfaces. The columns have stick shakers, and the landing gear retracts. These details make the 330 a manually controlled transport with warning and configuration systems around its yokes.

Research-based aircraft backgroundBlackBox Simulation · BlackBox Shorts Regional Manual ↗

HOW IT CAME TO BE

History & design

A Belfast-built regional transport

Short Brothers developed the SD3-30 around the needs of regional airlines: a roomy cabin for up to thirty passengers and turboprop operation on short routes. The Ulster Aviation Society preserves G-BDBS as part of that Belfast industrial history. The aircraft's box-like cabin gave it a recognisable shape and useful passenger or cargo space.

The 330 is the smaller member of the later 330/360 pair. Its dimensions and cabin capacity should stay separate from those of the stretched 360, even when a simulator package documents the two together.

Ulster Aviation Society · Short SD3-30 ↗

UNDER THE SKIN

Systems & details

Manual controls in a turboprop transport

The manual identifies mechanical primary controls and three-axis trim tabs. The 330’s flap system has four nonzero positions, compared with three for the 360. The stick-shaker installation is described separately from the hydraulic services and undercarriage.

BlackBox Shorts Regional systems manual, controls and model-specific flap tables.

BlackBox Simulation · BlackBox Shorts Regional Manual ↗

The Regional Series cockpit

BlackBox documents its custom Collins FC65 flight-director/autopilot and Garmin AS400 navigation system. The C-23A, B and C identities remain separate from the civil SD3-30 and from each other in the package’s variant listings.

BlackBox product features and variant list.

BlackBox Simulation · Shorts Regional Series – Product Features – BlackBox Simulation ↗

A large unpressurised cabin and conventional systems

The developer manual describes a box-section fuselage with a smooth outer skin bonded to a corrugated inner skin. It distinguishes the two aircraft's panels and dimensions while documenting shared systems. This explains both the family resemblance and the need to keep variant-specific cockpit and airframe details attached to the selected model.

BlackBox Simulation · BlackBox Shorts Regional Manual ↗

VIRTUAL VERSIONS

In your simulator

No released simulator product is listed for this aircraft in the developers reviewed. Announced products are excluded.

GO TO THE SOURCE

Manuals & resources

Read the original documentation from the people who created it. Manuals open on their publisher’s website.

AIRCRAFT AND FEEL

Built-in force-feedback profiles

Read the documentary basis, editable starting settings and remaining questions for the aircraft you fly. Each explanation refers to the exact profile revision shown.

Catalogue programme-20261011-v3 · 5 profile choices