FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2002
2002 - 3041.PDF
BUSINESS & GENERAL AVIATION DELIVERIES GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Lancair to restart Columbia line Light-aircraft manufacturer aims to resume production and ramp up deliveries with backing from new investor Lancair hopes to resume aircraft deliveries by year-end, with the backing of a new investor. The company halted production of its Columbia 300 light aircraft in July after two previous attempts to arrange new financing fell through. Lancair International, a separate company, has continued to pro duce kitplanes. Lancair president Bing Lantis says the company has selected an offer of financing from a private investor group and hopes to have an agreement in place by the beginning of November. The funds will be used to restart production and ramp up deliveries to the one- a-day rate required for sustained profitability, he says. The Bend, Oregon-based com pany's search for financing began last year when it became clear the existing investors could not put in the money to ramp up production, Lantis says. "We wanted to go to Wall Street, we had an investment bank lined up, and then 11 September happened," he says. By December, when the new financing was due to be in place, "we had not even talked to any body - we had to get new equity", Lantis says. Lancair worked with a venture capital firm to put together a syndicate of investors, but the effort stalled in late May when the US stock market began to slide. After halting production to stem its losses, Lancair began looking for investors "off Wall Street", says Lantis. More than $25 million is required to cover the company's losses, recall and expand its work force and acquire additional tool ing to support the higher produc tion rate. The offer selected will "more than adequately cover" Lancair's needs, he says. Before closing the line, Lancair built six Columbias a month and could have built 10 a month with the existing workforce, "but we did n't have the cashflow [to buy the parts]", says Lantis. He expects pro duction to "blast through" six a month within three to four months of a financing agreement. Lancair has delivered 60 Columbias and has another 180 on backlog. Rival startup Cirrus Design also turned to outside investors when it sought to increase production to achieve profitability, with a Bahrain- backed investment firm agreeing last year to provide a SI00 million financing package in return for a 58% interest in the company. Since then, Cirrus has pushed production of its SR20 and SR22 light aircraft up to two a month and says it is "on the verge of sustained profitability". FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP CaravanShares moves to relaunch venture put on hold last March single,' was put on hold last March due a lack of market confidence, says Chicago, USA-based Caravan- Shares, a joint venture between Cessna distributor JA Aero and charter operator Planemasters. "There was interest in the pro gramme initially but, as the econ- CaravanShares is planning to relaunch its fractional ownership venture in the first half of next year, around 12 months after the Cessna Grand Caravan-based pro gramme's initial unveiling. The venture, believed to be the first of its kind using the turboprop RE-ENGINING Aero Twin flight-tests 208 Alaska-based Aero Twin has begun flight-testing a Cessna 208 Caravan re-engined with a 790kW (1,060shp) Honeywell TPE331-12. Derated to 850hp and driving a Hartzell four-blade propeller, the engine has reduced the water take-off run for the float-equipped Caravan to 14s, from 30-40s for the standard Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-powered amphibian. For the standard wheeled ver sion, take-off run is reduced 10% to 300m (1,000ft) and climb rate increased 25% to 2,000ft/min, says Honeywell. omy was continuing to slow, not enough people were ready to make a commitment," says Caravan- Shares director of sales Scott Fank. CaravanShares is rebuilding its customer base, prompted by in creased interest in the eight-seat, single-engine aircraft and is opti mistic the market will support a relaunch early next year. Fank adds: "We have the infrastructure in place with a service and maintenance centre and a charter operation. But we won't jump in until we are confi dent of success this time." The programme focuses on pri vate individuals or small companies wanting to travel within two hours or around 800km (430nm) of Chicago and return the same day. Under a five-year agreement, cus tomers buy shares in a Grand Caravan starting at an eighth and costing $228,500. This entitles them to 43 days annual use of the aircraft, says Fank. A $1,800 fixed monthly management fee and a $320 occu pied hourly rate are also levied. CaravanShares plans to relaunch the programme with between eight and 16 customers which, Fank says, will equate to two aircraft. MOONEY TRAINING Mooney Aerospace has selected Flight Training to pro vide factory-authorised training for buyers of the M20M Bravo, M20R Ovation 2 and M20S Eagle 2 light aircraft. Training will be provided at Mooney's Kerrville, Texas, plant or Flight Training's facility in San Antonio, Texas. CHARTER GROUP A group of air charter brokers has formed the Air Charter Professionals Association (ACPA) to define new standards and a code of ethical practices for brokers acting as intermedi aries between business travellers, freight shippers and aircraft owners and operators. PISTON FIRST Schweizer Aircraft has delivered a 300CBi to Johnston Aviation, the first US flight school to buy the piston-powered, fuel- injected, training helicopter. HAMILTON TURBINE Dassault has selected Hamilton Sundstrand to supply the emer gency power ram-air turbine system for the Falcon 7X business jet. www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 15-21 OCTOBER 2002 21
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
