Kate Sarsfield/LONDON
Alberta Aerospace (AAC) has completed the acquisition of the single-engine Phoenix FanJet from a Belgian court and the trustees of the assets of the aircraft's former owner, Promavia.
The move concludes the protracted and bitter legal battle between Promavia and AAC, and paves the way for the Canadian company to begin US Federal Aviation Administration conformity inspection, due to start in January.
"In order to proceed with certification, we have to submit all technical data to the FAA, which will be scrutinised, as will the two prototypes, to ensure that they correspond with the original Stelio Frati design. We hope to complete this process by the beginning of February, then flight testing can begin," says AAC president Raymond Johnson.
Certification and first deliveries of the Phoenix FanJet two-seat high performance trainer are planned to take place "around 10 months after conformity", with the four-seat high performance personal aircraft variant following "about eight months later", according to AAC.
"Once we have set a certification date, we will begin our aggressive marketing campaign throughout the USA and Europe and will endeavour to get as much exposure as possible at key trade shows in the two regions," adds Johnson.
Both aircraft are powered by a single Williams FJ44-1A turbofan and are "competitively" priced at $1.56 million for the two-seater and $1.9 million for the four-seat model for the first 25 sold of each.
In an effort to drive down development costs, AAC will outsource subassembly work to North American and European manufacturers and hopes to submit bidding packages "soon".
Final assembly will be undertaken at AAC's base at Claresholm, Alberta. In the fourth year of production the company plans to build 60 aircraft.
Johnson concedes: "We have spent $10 million so far and need to raise a further $10 million to bring us through type certification and back-to-back production."
Source: Flight International
