New Airframers resurrect dormant programs as new designs languish on the drawing board

by Mark Huber Farnborough Kestrel JEFF BERLIN

The global economic downturn and the high cost and they appear to be falling at a near-equivalent rate was announced that Klapmeier larger windows, and an engine of certification have conspired to delay or kill several for the first six months of this year. would head the new Kestrel Air- less powerful than the 1,200- new programs. However, several others that “It wasn’t a brilliant year,” Piaggio America craft Company, to be headquar- shp PT6 currently in the nose. tered at the soon-to-be-shuttered Projected range with five pas- were either dead, in various states of incompletion­ or ­president and CEO John Bingham said of 2009. “We naval air station at Brunswick sengers is 1,324 nm. While Kes- long out of production appear to be coming back to suffered like everyone­ else.” Piaggio sold 24 Avanti II Landing, Maine. Kestrel entered trel declined to name a price life, albeit sometimes in different locales. For them, turboprops last year and, while this was not a sterling into a lease option with the for the 350-knot, six- to eight- Midcoast Regional Redevelop- passenger aircraft, Klapmeier this could be the dawn of the dead. The simple reason performance, it and other established manufacturers­ ment Authority for Hangar #6, said he hopes it will be less for this resurrection: less risk. of business-class turboprops appear to be hanging­ a 170,000-sq-ft aviation mainte- than a TBM850, which sells for Sales of new turboprops did not escape the great on. Last year Hawker Beechcraft delivered 119 King nance facility built in 2004. approximately $3.2 million. He aviation carnage of 2009, but they were far better Airs (excluding military sales), Cessna shipped 97 The repackaged Kestrel ven- said the company’s goal is to sell ture still needs to raise substan- 35 to 50 aircraft per year in what than the anemic numbers pistons and jets posted, Caravans and Pilatus sold out again with 100 PC-12s. tial additional capital to get off he calls a “niche market.” While down 54 and 34 percent, respectively, according to Piper and Socata turboprop sales limped along, while the ground and qualify for the acknowledging that the Chinese statistics from the General Aviation Manufacturers newcomer Quest ­delivered 24 Kodiaks. attractive incentives provided could make a similar product by Maine governments, accord- with lower labor costs in light ­Association. Compared with 2008, turboprop sales However, the last year proved more challenging for ing to Klapmeier. “We need to of their acquisition of Epic’s last year were down “only” 17.6 percent for the year, other relatively new market entrants. come up with a lot of money,” designs, Klapmeier said, “I am he said, estimating that number confident in our ability to design at approximately $100 million. the better airplane.” Chinese Firm intention to build the former equipped LT is now $1.9 million. However, while he declined to Acquires Epic’s Assets Epic aircraft in China. How- Conceivably, China Avia- provide an exact amount, Klap- Here Comes ever, in April the court ordered tion could begin building an meier said the new company has Composite aircraft builder China Aviation to form a part- 80-percent-scale version of already raised some of that capi- China is not the only coun- Epic’s plan for three new tur- nership with the LT Builders the LT that Epic had devel- tal, and he expressed confidence try looking at developing turbo- boprops and two light jets Group, allowing it to operate oped called the Escape. This that it could attract the remain- props, either indigenously or by collapsed when the Bend, Ore.- the Bend plant, complete air- aircraft is virtually identical to der, in part because of what he acquiring designs. India, with its based company filed for bank- craft already in production, and the Epic-built prototype of the characterized as the Kestrel’s high population density, scarce ruptcy last year, stranding 12 to market former Epic kit air- Farnborough Aircraft Kestrel. inherent advantages over the airport resources and under- of its builder-assisted, single- craft in North America. That aircraft first flew in 2006. competition. Chief among those served rural populations, seems engine turboprop LT kitplanes Don King, CEO of the LT Plans for Epic to produce the is a flying aircraft backed by $20 a natural for turboprops. on the assembly line. On March Builders Group, said that LT aircraft for Farnborough col- million to $30 million already During the last three decades, 26 of this year a bankruptcy kits were back in ­production by lapsed and Farnborough filed invested in its engineering. “A India’s attempt to develop a court accepted an all-cash $4.3 July and that five former Epic for bankruptcy in September huge amount of design work home-grown business-class tur- million bid from China Avia- employees have been hired to 2008 after failing to attract suf- has already been done with an boprop, the twin-pusher NAL tion Industry General Aircraft, assist kitbuilders and to make ficient investment capital. A eye toward certification,” giving (National Aerospace Laborato- a recently formed government- and sell parts for the existing new ownership group took over the Kestrel a big advantage over ries) Saras, has been fraught with owned subsidiary of the giant fleet of LT aircraft. He also the company in 2009, but then any clean-sheet design, he said. problems and delays. Designed Aviation Industries of China said the company worked exten- business director Adrian Norris “We are going to be editing the with input from Russia’s Mya- (Avic), for Epic’s assets, reject- sively with the FAA to ensure acknowledged that the company design, not starting over.” sischev, which later pulled out ing a competing bid from a it is in compliance with all reg- needed to attract additional cap- Part of that editing will of the project, the first proto- group of seven LT kit owners ulations governing amateur- ital, and possibly form a partner- be a redesign of the wing, to type flew in 2004. The second called the LT Builders Group. built aircraft and estimated that ship with another manufacturer, make it easier to manufacture, flew in 2008 and crashed last China Aviation announced its the cost of constructing a well before it could bring the aircraft a slightly bigger cabin with year during an engine relight to market. Kestrel Redux NAL Saras

Enter Alan Klapmeier. The cofounder and former chair- man of Cirrus Design made news last year when his bid to take over that company’s fledg- ling single-engine jet program, the SF50 Vision, failed. He subsequently entered into dis- cussions with Norris and Farn- borough’s Anthony Galley Epic LT Escape regarding the Kestrel. In July it

001aaaaAviationNBAA ConventionInternational News News • •October November 19, 20102010 •• www.ainonline.comwww.ainonline.com test, killing the crew. In the days the aircraft’s design and stay a stretched, eight- to 10-passen- that followed the crash, NAL with the program through cer- ger version of the piston engine Extra EA500 put a brave spin on the pro- tification, which seems unlikely GA8. Power for the GA10 sin- gram, insisting that the aircraft this year. However, when it gle and GA18 twin will come would be certified this year. does happen, production is from Rolls-Royce 250 turbo- “The Saras project will con- expected to be transferred to props with upgrade paths antic- tinue; we will not shelve it,” said HAL-Kanpur, the same facil- ipated to the RR500 when it SK Brahmachari, director gen- ity making components under becomes available. Certification eral of the Council of Scientific contract for the revived Dornier of the GA10 is expected in 2012 and Industrial Research. Mean- Do-228-212NG. and the first fuselage is already while, the reaf- NAL meanwhile is continu- built. Mahindra expects to firmed its order for 15 of the $9 ing with preliminary develop- invest $37 million in Gippsland million aircraft. ment of a 70-seat commuter and could eventually move JEFF BERLIN That was before India’s Direc- turboprop called the RTA-70, production to Mallur, India, torate General of Civil Avia- which it expects to best the ATR where it already has an avia- THURBER MATT tion (DGCA) issued its scathing 72. Preliminary goals call for an tion facility, having long been a crash investigation report earlier aircraft that costs at least 25 per- ­supplier of engineering services this year. The DGCA blasted cent less to acquire and operate, and structural components to both NAL and the Indian Air with a range of 1,100 nm, and OEMs, including Airbus and Hawker Beechcraft. Immediate­ Gippsland GA10 plans call for the plant to be used to produce subcontracted structures and the N5, a light five-seat aircraft Mahindra is developing with NAL. Dornier Do-228

The German Phoenix certificate approval for the air- amphibian to start in 2012. The craft. One month later, Ruag company currently holds letters Three moribund German handed over the first NG to New of intent for more than 25 cop- designs, two from Dornier and Central Airservice of Japan, con- ies of the $6 million aircraft. one from Extra, are poised for necting Tokyo to offshore islands. The 180-knot, all-compos- renewed production. The aircraft entered service with ite amphibian was designed in The twin Honeywell TPE331- the airline last month. Ruag also the 1980s and was FAA certified 10-powered Dornier Do-228- announced that it is building a under Part 23 in the early 1990s Gippsland’s in-development GA18 will be based on the company’s current GA24A. 212-NG is once again in special-mission variant of the at a cost of almost $150 mil- production, with India’s Hindu- aircraft for the German Navy, lion, underwritten by the Dorn- stan Aeronautics making struc- which will use it for pollution ier family. The Dorniers formed tural components, including the detection in the North and Baltic the Dornier Seaplane Co. and fuselage, wing and vertical sta- seas. The 228NG “Special Mis- installed U.S. business jet indus- bilizer. Those are then shipped sion” will be equipped with side- try veteran Joe Walker to run to Ruag’s plant in Oberpfaffen- looking airborne radar, color line it. Walker sees a potential mar- hofen for aircraft final assembly. and IR/UV line scanners, and an ket for as many as 300 to 500 More than 150 older-generation electro-optical sensor. aircraft over the next decade. 228s remain in service world- Another design with Ger- Walker said the flying boat’s wide from a production run man roots, the Dornier Seastar cabin is 50 percent larger than that spanned from 1982 to CD-2, is one step closer to enter- that of a Cessna Caravan 675. 2002. HAL built and sold 80 of ing production now that the Power for the 10,000-pound AIR SAFARIS those under license. The NG is company has chosen a produc- Seastar comes from a pair of Force’s Aircraft System and the ability to cruise at 300 knots a revised design with new five- tion site. The Dornier Seaplane 650-shp P&WC PT6A-135s. Testing Establishment, which at 30,000 feet and use 3,000-foot blade composite propellers, Company will be setting up Interiors for the unpressurized flew the flight tests, for conduct- runways. Plans are for the air- glass-panel avionics and more shop in St. Jean-sur Richelieu, cabin range from an opulent six- ing a shoddy program with lax craft possibly to be fashioned comfortable seats. The aircraft Quebec, chosen for its proxim- seat executive layout to a 12-seat controls, poor procedures and from composites, have FBW can be configured to seat up to ity to Lake Champlain and a high-density configuration. an overall lack of accountability. controls and be powered by 19 passengers. Ruag has orders government incentive pack- Like the 228NG and the It faulted NAL for subcontract- next-generation engines. for the aircraft from customers age. Construction on the plant Seastar, the Extra EA500 is ing and inadequately monitor- Private Indian companies are in Australia, Mexico and Japan. should be completed late next already certified. The brain- ing almost all of the Saras’s also getting in the game. Late On August 18, the EASA year, allowing customer deliver- child of German aerobatic development and flight-test last year the Mahindra Group, granted Ruag extended type ies of the twin-engine, push-pull ­aircraft guru Walter Extra, the analysis to a company called a $7 billion-a-year industrial 500 was poised to take on the Aircraft Design and Engineer- and IT conglomerate based in Piper Meridian, but the strain ing Services in , and Mumbai, bought a controlling of developing the aircraft threw for using unapproved propel- stake in Australia’s Gippsland the company into insolvency lers on the aircraft that crashed. Aerospace with an eye to kick- in 2003 and the program lan- The report also noted the crew’s starting the single-engine GA10 guished. The company’s new negative remarks about aircraft Airvan, and later fielding an owner, Ken Keith, has now controllability with regard to improved version of the vener- begun selling the $1.65 million, excessive control surface drag, able twin-engine Nomad, to be Rolls-Royce 250-B17F/2-pow- and faulted the crew for poor badged the GA18. The aircraft ered, single-engine turboprop. coordination, inadequate cock- are expected to sell for $1.3 mil- Plans announced this sum- pit procedures and an overall lion and $3.3 million, respec- mer call for the aircraft struc- lack of professionalism. tively. Gippsland Aeronautics tural components to continue to After six years of flight tests, acquired the type certificate for be produced at the Extra factory the Indian firm has called the the twin-engine Nomad in 2008. in Dinslaken, Germany, but for Dornier Seastar CD-2

Russians back in to help fix The GA10 is expected to be THURBER MATT Continued on next page u

www.ainonline.com • November 2010 • Aviation International Newsaa2 uContinued from preceding page single-engine turboprop and any change to the Meridian final assembly to take place at a finance a proposed new facility Evektor EV-55 Outback would be a “long-range” project. new facility to be built in Mon- in Melbourne, Fla. The company At last month’s NBAA Con- trose, Colo. As of late Septem- had hoped to have the $2.95 vention Hawker Beechcraft ber, those plans apparently had million single certified by 2012, announced a new variant of its hit a snag over how much of a but a spokesman told AIN that popular King Air B200 series, proposed $2.6 million govern- a single non-conforming proto- the $5.799 million B250. This ment incentive package can type flying has been retired revised model features compos- actually be provided. In the and that, for now, the project ite winglets, composite propellers middle of last month, however, is shelved. That aircraft first and an improved ram-air recov- the county offered a new plan– flew in 2007, but plans called ery system. The company said to build a hangar on the airport for significant­ changes to the the changes will produce signifi- and lease it to the manufacturer. production aircraft, including cantly better short-field and hot- Errol Bader, Extra vice pres- a 42-inch fuselage stretch. He Privateer Industries is cur- he refused to address specula- and-high performance that will ident of business development, said the company has returned rently constructing a prototype tion that one of those options exceed that of the Cessna Grand told AIN that the Montrose snag to its core competency of kit of an all-composite, single- involves unducted fan propul- Caravan or the Pilatus PC-12, would not delay the compa- building and is developing a engine amphibian powered by a sion. “We are looking at several enabling the B250 to operate out ny’s plan to deliver its first U.S. smaller, faster version of the single GE M601 with a shrouded things,” he said, adding that any of 2,000-foot runways and main- customer aircraft by year-end. CA-12 for that market called propeller and aiming for a first announcement this year would tain a 300-knot cruise speed. “That airplane will be completed the CA-11, and recently has flight next year. The company be “premature.” Deliveries are scheduled to start in ­Germany now,” he said. Bader sold several of its high-wing says the aircraft will cruise at Likewise, a spokeswoman early next year. said the Montrose impasse CA-9 kits into Brazil. 215 knots and have a range of for Piper declined to comment For now, most established had delayed Extra’s produc- There are several other appar- 1,000 nm with its seven seats specifically on reports that the OEMs appear to be keeping tion plans, that other communi- ent casualties of this financial full. Company principal Frank Florida-based OEM is contem- their powder dry with regard to ties are interested in hosting the entropy. For the last seven years, Leventhal says the company has plating a revised Meridian tur- new turboprop projects as the plant, and that “at some point, Evektor has been working on enough money to fund the air- boprop, possibly with winglets, air of general economic ner- you have to move on.” its new-design twin, the EV-55 craft through its first flight but insisting instead that the com- vousness lingers. “Turboprops The company has firm orders Outback, and late last year con- will then have to raise $200 mil- pany is focusing all of its atten- are doing remarkably well,” said for five copies of the six-seat, ducted successful ground power lion to get it certified and start tion on the development of the Pilatus’s Bosshard, “but I would 226-knot (25,000 feet) aircraft tests of the high-wing aircraft. production. Leventhal said the single-engine PiperJet. She said be cautious on 2011.” o from U.S. buyers, according to The Czech Republic company, company is angling to part- Bader. As with the Gippsland best known for its single-engine ner with an established OEM. aircraft, Bader said he expects light sport aircraft, said the Out- Failing that, he said, Privateer Rolls-Royce to offer an RR500 back will make its first flight would “fund it on our own.” cheyenne mod earns EASA ticket upgrade for the Extra 500 when later this year. It hopes to posi- it becomes available. He also tion the new turboprop to com- Projects Under Wraps After 11 years in the aircraft modification business, Blackhawk said he expects the aircraft’s pete against the Cessna 208, but Modifications has announced the European certification of its latest 19-gph fuel economy to win it without a significant financial Ambiguity and secrecy cloak project, the XP engine upgrade for the Piper Cheyenne. The EASA additional orders. infusion this appears unlikely. some other long-discussed certification covers the Cheyenne I, II and IIXL models of the twin- Some proposed amphibi- projects. The fate of the long- engine turboprop, which replaces the aircraft’s original engines with Waiting for the Dough ans also linger in this financial anticipated follow-on to the factory-new 750-shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-135As. limbo. Two remakes of classic TBM850, code named NTx, Blackhawk’s approach has been to replace lower-power P&WC The global recession has Grumman designs–the Goose is unknown following Daher- engines with higher powered turboprops that use the original engine’s placed developers of “clean and the Albatross–are in vari- Socata’s announcement that footprint, thus delivering a simplified bolt-on upgrade. The per- sheet” designs at a financial ous stages of development and it is studying plans to resur- formance increase with the XP mod comes from flat rating the new disadvantage when it comes to also await additional funding, as rect the former Grob SPn twin- engines to the Cheyenne’s airframe horsepower limit, which provides raising capital and completing does the Russian Beriev Be-112. jet program with the current an increase in available torque in the climb and cruise phases. The net certification. The once much discussed owner of those assets, Allied result is an advertised maximum cruise speed in the 280-knot range for Comp Air never saw the Freight Feeder FF5000 cargo Aviation Technologies. Grob all Cheyenne models, plus reduced time to climb and extended range. anticipated $150 million required container twin turboprop filed for bankruptcy last year The XP upgrade offers the operator the option of higher cruis- to develop and certify the CA-12 appears dead. after building three prototypes. ing speed or reduced fuel consumption at lower cruise speeds with While Pilatus Aircraft presi- reduced operating and maintenance costs. Resale value is also Comp Air CA-12 dent Thomas Bosshard acknowl- enhanced with the more powerful engines; valuation guides such edged that the company is as Vref and Aircraft Bluebook show upgraded legacy aircraft remain studying options for a follow-on competitive in today’s market. to its PC-12 turboprop single, Blackhawk, which is headquartered in Waco, Texas, offers similar engine upgrades for other popular turboprops such as Beechcraft’s King Air 90 and 200, Cessna’s Conquest I and the single-engine­ Caravan. n

Comp Air CA-9

Piper Cheyenne Privateer Industries MATT THURBER MATT

3aaAviation International News • November 2010 • www.ainonline.com