New Turboprops Airframers Resurrect Dormant Programs As New Designs Languish on the Drawing Board
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New Turboprops 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 turboprop 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 India 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 Indian Air Force 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.