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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0304.PDF
GENERAL AVIATION Gavilan looks for US financing BY GRAHAM WARWICK IN ATLANTA A prototype of the Colom bian-built Gavilan 358 sin- gle-engined utility aircraft is in the USA being demonstrated to financial institutions interested in investing in production. If backers can be found, the US-designed aircraft will be built in a factory on the outskirts of the Colombian capital Bogota by a new company, El Gavilan, formed in December 1991 by the project's initiator, Colombian aircraft dealer and operator Aero Merchantil. The Colombian-built proto type Gavilan 358 is visiting the USA and is also to be audited by its designer, General Aviation Technical Services (GATS) of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. GATS comprises a group of for mer Piper Aircraft employees which was approached by Aero Merchantil to design a replace ment for the Cessna 206, which is now out of production. Gavilan 358 production is scheduled to begin in July, says Aero Merchantil's Eric Leaver. The company plans to deliver ten aircraft by the end of 1993, 20 in 1994 and 30 in 1995 until the Bogota factory reaches its 40-a-year capacity in 1996. A VFR-equipped, Colombian-certif icated Gavilan 358 will cost $270,000 at 1992 prices, he says. Initial orders are expected to come from Colombia, where there is considerable demand for a rugged, simple utility aircraft, says Leaver. The 2,040kg aircraft can seat up to eight people and lift a 500kg payload from a 275m (900ft) unprepared strip. The high-wing, fixed-tricycle-gear Gavilan has a 260kW (350hp) Lycoming piston engine. • Gavilan: production set to begin in July LoPresti SwiftFury to be resurrected Anew company has been formed to build the LoPresti Piper SwiftFury high-perform ance piston single. Banker Roy Henderson and designer Roy LoPresti have established Seat tle-based LoPresti Flight Con cepts to acquire the assets of LoPresti Piper Aircraft and raise the money to certficate and pro duce the SwiftFury. LoPresti says $500,000 is being raised to buy out part of Piper owner Stuart Millar's 81% stake in LoPresti Piper. LoPresti himself owns the other 19%. Henderson then plans to take the new company public to raise the $15 million needed to certif icate the SwiftFury — a moder nised version of the 1940s- vintage Globe Swift. The public offering is planned for mid-1992, says LoPresti. SwiftFury certification will take 15 to 18 months. "From getting the money to selling the first aircraft would be 20 months," says LoPresti, who has "...little doubt there is demand for the SwiftFury". Two years ago, he says, LoPresti Piper had orders for 569 aircraft, backed by $100,000 "quasi-deposits" held by potential customers. The assets which LoPresti Flight Concepts is seeking in clude parts for five aircraft which were in production when Piper filed for bankruptcy pro tection. The new company would complete construction of three certification aircraft at Vero Beach, Florida, while look ing for a new production site, says LoPresti. The leading candi date is understood to be Denver, Colorado. Following the demise of LoPresti Piper, LoPresti kept the SwiftFury design team intact by establishing a new company, LoPresti Speed Merchants, to produce performance-improve ment kits for Piper Comanches and Twin Comanches. He says that over 50 kits have been sold since the 1991 launch. The company has a similar kit for the Arrow and plans to market performance improve ments for the Piper range. • Cirrus beefs up powerplant for VK30 homebuild Cirrus Design has installed a more powerful engine in its VK30 five-seat homebuilt pusher-powered aircraft and hopes to fly it in mid-February. Replacing the original 225kW (300hp) Lycoming engine with a 260kW turbocharged Conti nental is expected to raise cruise speed from 225kt (300km/h) at 7,000ft (2,100m) to more than 260kt at 25,000ft, says Cirrus president Al Klapmeier. The composite-construction VK30 is unpressurised and oxy gen masks will be required at the higher altitudes possible with the turbocharged engine, admits Klapmeier. He compares the uprated VK30 with the turbocharged Mooney TLS, which, like the VK30, is also an unpressurised aircraft. Cirrus has sold 45 VK30 kits, of which 31 have been shipped. The first two customer-built air craft have flown, Klapmeier says, one powered by an Allison 250 turboprop, the other by a Vee- eight piston engine. The company plans to offer a complete "firewall backward" kit for $54,000. This will comprise the Continental TSIO-550-B1B engine, its overhead balanced induction system, accessories, engine mount, cooling baffles, propeller-shaft clutch and pro peller governor. • April first flight planned for Jet Cruzer Advanced Aerodynamics and Structures (AASI) plans to fly the first production Jet Cruzer six-seat, single-turbine, canard/pusher business aircraft in April. The first three aircraft will be used for the year-long US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification programme. The foreplanes for the first three aircraft have been built and static-tested, says AASI mar keting manager Bill Hubbard. The Jet Cruzer's foreplane and rear-mounted wing are of metal but the unpressurised fuselage is of composite construction. The unusual configuration was flight-tested by a proof-of- concept aircraft which first flew in January 1989 and was retired after improvements planned for the production Jet Cruzer had been evaluated. These include fuel-carrying strakes at the wing roots and leading-edge slats on both fore- plane and outer wing. Hubbard says the project has financial backing from a major Far Eastern investor and AASI is committed to produce 20 air craft at the introductory price of $795,000, of which ten have been sold so far with two more orders in the pipeline. • 18 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 12 - 18 February, 1992
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