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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0014.PDF
GENERAL AVIATION Starship certification slips WICHITA ~ Beech Aircraft expects to build at least one production Starship I this year, despite slippage in the certification programme. Production will be brought "up to speed" in 1989, the company tells Flight. Starship certification, once scheduled for 1986, had most recently been set for the end of last year, a target date confirmed just three months ago. Final approval from the US Federal Aviation Admini stration is now expected in the early part of this year, according to the manu facturer. "It is hardly the end of the world if Starship is not certificated by January 1," the company told Flight immedi ately before closing down for its Christmas/New Year break. Initial certification ex cludes the autopilot and flight into known icing. The manu facturer expects these facili ties to be approved in "late winter". Beech is not anticipating any need to cut back prod uction following the reduced value of the Dollar or the fall in stockmarket share values. It has already seen evidence of the effect of these in the marketplace, but says that its diverse business will protect it from problems. Introduction of the Star- ship I and the prospective flight of its jet-powered cabin- class twin (Beech cannot confirm precise plans) are likely to be highlights of the year for the manufacturer. New maximum speeds have been announced for the Beechjet. The previous limits of 320kt and 265kt below 17,000ft and 14,000ft, respectively, now come into force at 11,000ft and 8,000ft. Beech seeks new UK agent LONDON ~ It has been said that to make a small fortune from general- aviation all you need is to start with a large one— preferably one belonging to someone else. The lie to that cynical observation may be given by competition in the UK among several companies bidding for the Beech Aircraft distributorship. After 20 years, during which it has sold some 150 Beech aircraft, Harold Bamberg's Eagle group has relinquished the distrib utorship "by mutual consent" with Beech. The sales include 86 King Airs (not all within the UK), of which five have been the latest Series 300 model. Eagle currently supports these five and ten other King Airs in service. Although Eagle has discon tinued promoting its Beech- craft connection since the beginning of December, Bamberg tells Flight that termination of the arrange ment will become effective on January 31. He says that distributing aircraft has been "not very profitable in recent years". Higher aircraft prices have accompanied reduced production levels, and sales turnover has been lower. Flight understands that 13 companies are involved in bidding for the UK Beech distributorship, including several who are gaining repu tations for Beech mainte nance and engineering expertise. Whichever is selected will need to be prepared to promote the Beech 1900 and Beechjet, both uncertificated in the UK. Southend-based National Airways, which claims that it has sold 37 King Airs, sees a niche for the Beech 1900 for scheduled business, but might wish to share certification costs if it went ahead with an order. Plymouth Executive Aviation has a growing repu tation for its King Air engineering, but has no formal comment on the Beech distributorship. London Aviation Centre would like to win the agency, and expects that a distributor will have to buy a $3 • 5 million Beechjet. Five King Air 300s are among 150 Beech aircraft sold by UK distributor Eagle, which has relinquished its representation Harold Bamberg says that Eagle had been inhibited from selling secondhand aircraft, including jets for which many customers are looking. He hopes to include good Citation business jets alongside used King Airs and other pre- owned aircraft once he is no longer tied to Beech. Bamberg estimates that certification of the Beech 1900 commuter or the Beech jet could cost around $1 million each, a price which he dismisses as "not a proposition". There would also be a question of which facilities Beech could provide to help 1900 sales in the UK. Any new distributor will have to buy an aircraft and carry anything up to £1 million worth of spares, he suggests. "I'm still very fond of Beech, but a lot of things have changed since Raytheon took charge. Beech was hard to beat in the old days," accord ing to Bamberg, who sounds a note of caution to prospective Beech distributors. "I would only continue in partnership with [distributors in] France and West Germany," which he claims have have been responsive to his overtures. A single European distributor must be appointed sooner or later, says Bamberg: "It is inevitable." Beech has no comment on the proceedings, and distrib utors in France and West Germany were unavailable for comment last week. Flight understands that Beech is selling direct to the UK. Botswana joins BAe 125 club CHESTER British Aerospace announces orders for six BAe 125-800 business jets worth some $40 million. The Government of Botswana has ordered one aircraft for presidential use, and the other five machines are going to unnamed corporate customers in the USA and West Germany. Botswana becomes the 40th country to order the 125 series, and the six sales take 125-800 orders to 108. BAe sold 25 examples of the busi ness jet aircraft last year. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 2/9 January 1988
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