Aircraft

The troubled Symphony Aircraft should cease to exist by September, chief investor Lou Simons told reporters at AirVenture in Oshkosh, and will soon after be replaced by a new company using the Symphony brand.

The new company will not hold responsibility for old orders and deposits after liquidation, he said.

Problems were sparked, Simons said, when the values of the euro and Canadian dollar rose, driving labour and production costs in Canada beyond what the company could afford.

He added that after Symphony purchased its aircraft designs, engineers discovered missing tooling and other elements that caused delays in production and turned off customers and investors.

Symphony Aircraft Industries started in September 2003 as the North American production arm of Ostmecklenburgische Flugzeugbau. The lead investor pulled out in January and later that month Symphony declared bankruptcy.

Production could resume by late 2008, Simons says, when he hopes to see increased fuel capacity, a new ballistic recovery chute and potentially a Thielert diesel.