Colorado-based Adam Aircraft, maker of the A500 twin-engine piston-powered aircraft and the A700 very-light jet, has laid off "many" of its employees and has consolidated operations under a "strategic adjustment" that will "reduce resources" to match a revised production and spending plan, the company reveals.
"Adam Aircraft Industries is announcing today a strategic adjustment in operations designed to focus on two key objectives: obtain a type certificate on our A700 jet design and complete our 'Make Production Fly' initiative," said Adam Aircraft president Duncan Koerbel in a press release.
"To provide for our future growth, we must be strategic in our focus by managing current cash expenditures to ensure adequate time to secure financing for the long term. We're off to a good start in this effort with assistance from our partner, Citibank, but we need to be able to provide them with sufficient time working with potential investors to secure long-term financing."
The company, which had raised $200 million in equity and debt with Goldman Sachs, says it will suspend its composites operations at the Ogden, Utah facility through early summer and will reschedule the completion of the composite lay-up work there.
Adam will also transfer the lay-up and bonding operations for the aircraft's empennage from facilities in Pueblo, Colorado to the company's home base at Centennial Airport in Englewood, Colorado. Machine shop operations will continue in Pueblo.
Adam had obtained US Federal Aviation Administration type inspection authorisation for the A700 in mid-December and had anticipated certification in 2008. The A500 was in production, but few had been built as the company focused on completing the A700.
Another aircraft manufacturer based at Centennial Airport, Aviation Technology Group, halted production of its Javelin VLJ aircraft in late December after efforts to raise financing had failed.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
