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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 1966.PDF
GENERAL AVIATION Piper-CSE deal collapses amid bitterness BY KIERAN DALY Piper Aircraft's relationship with one of its best-known distributors — CSE Aviation of the UK — has come to an end after 30 years, amid mutual recriminations. The US manufacturer, which is likely to leave Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection soon, has appointed Anglo American Airmotive of Bournemouth as its new UK and Ireland distrib utor from 20 August. CSE, a major Piper cus tomer, will concentrate on the French Socata TB aircraft, for which it is also a distributor. An angry Piper denies Ox- Pegasus school shuts up shop Major US pilot-training school Pegasus Flight Center has shut down without notice, leaving staff and credi tors unpaid and about 75 stu dents grounded. Instructors, students and air port officials learned of the school's 1 August closure through posted notices. The collapse follows the clo sure of Bolivar Aviation, which operated 100 training aircraft (Flight International, 28 July - 3 August), and the closure of several smaller US schools. Students, many of them for eign nationals, and airport offi cials have been unable to contact Pegasus proprietors Laurant and B J Jacquelin, who are said to be looking for a buyer. The premises of Pegasus and related operations, including Pegasus Charters and the Acme School of Aeronautics, remain locked. The flight-training cen tre operated about two dozen owned and leased aircraft, some of which are locked in a hanger at Meacham Airport, one of the largest general- aviation airfields in the USA. The US Federal Aviation Ad ministration says that it has been investigating Pegasus Charters over aircraft and maintenance record-keeping. • ford-based CSE's assertion that the distributor chose not to renew the contract, saying that it withdrew it CSE following feedback from customers. CSE says that it "...will not be renewing [its] distributor ship contract with Piper" and that "...faced with the financial difficulties and uncertain fu ture being faced by Piper, we have had to make a decision as to where the future new light- aircraft market is going to be". Piper director of interna tional marketing Lee Walther says: "The situation is com pletely 180° different. Piper chose not to offer a new con tract, even though the name of CSE has been synonymous with Piper for 30-something years. "We felt it was in the best interests of Piper and the cus tomer in the whole of the UK that we have a new distributor for that part of the world. It was not just unhappiness on our part but the unhappiness expressed by the customer." Of Anglo American, a flying school and small turbine- engine overhaul enterprise, he says: "They seem to be very well-liked and they have tre mendous staff. We have never seen more energetic people — they were fighting to get this distributorship." • OSHKOSH '93 FAA presents first Sportplane ticket BY JOHN MORRIS IN OSHKOSH The US Federal Aviation Administration has awarded the first type certifi cate in its new Sportplane cate gory to the Quicksilver GT- 500 two-seat ultralight. The Sportplane class is a sub-set of the Primary-aircraft Malaysia to build Datwyler trainer Max Datwyler's single-engine, two-seat, aero- batic MD3 Swiss Trainer, which has received full US certification, will be built in Malaysia, the company declared at the EAA convention. Malaysian Government- owned company SME has es sentially bought the project and production rights from Da- wyler. It will build 20 aircraft initially for Malaysia's air force, and ten for Malaysia Airlines. British Aerospace is to provide technological support. Three Swiss Trainers have been built to date, and a fourth, powered by a Lycoming AEIO-320 aerobatic engine with a Christen inverted oil system, is under construction. No decision has yet been made on what to call the air craft to be produced in Malay sia, but it is unlikely to remain the Swiss Trainer. P category, created a year ago in co-operation with the US Ex perimental Aircraft Association (EAA). The category has less onerous requirements than full Part 23 certification. A disappointed FAA was un able to award any primary category certificates at this year's EAA convention at Oshkosh, because none of the 11 aircraft and two engine programmes so far involved has reached fruition. Other aircraft close to achieving Sportplane approval include the ultralight-based Laron Streak Shadow two- seater and Zenair's Zodiac CH601, on which flight tests are almost complete and which has a reduced stall speed. • Door latches hold the hey to Lancair IV's pressure problems Lancair fixes pressurisation glitch Lancair says that it has solved the sealing difficul ties it encountered in develop ing the world's first pressur ised kitplane, the Lancair IV. Company president Lance Neibauer says that though the use of nine floor latches, in stead of two, it has succeeded in maintaining the required 0.345bar (51b/in2) cabin pres sure — equating to a cabin altitude of 8,500ft (2,600m) at 24,000ft actual altitude. Neibauer reports sales of 250 of the four-seat kit, of which more than 60% are for the pressurised version. Lancair shipped the first kit for the simplified, fixed-gear, larger-winged ES four-seater just before the EAA show and is looking for investors to form a separate company to certify that type and three model IV versions — normally aspirated, twin-turbo and pressurised — at a cost of $9-10 million. D FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL II - 1/ August, 1993 25
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