Avcraft Aviation will by the end of March choose one of five wing suppliers for its resurrected Dornier 328JET - or decide to build the wing itself - as it gears up to deliver its first "new" aircraft by the middle of next year (Flight International, 23-29 January).
The Virginia-based company - which bought the 33-seat regional aircraft programme from the administrator of the defunct Fairchild Dornier in 2002 - says the contenders are from "central Europe, eastern Europe and one from the USA".
Two of the shortlisted businesses approached Avcraft Aviation only in the past two weeks, says managing director Wolfgang Walter.
However, Walter says the potential US supplier is not M7 Aerospace, which took over the assets of Fairchild Dornier's San Antonio-based subsidiary that had built the 328JET's wings and with which Avcraft has had an acrimonious relationship.
The first 328JET to be fitted out as an air ambulance goes into service in April with an unnamed operator, meanwhile. It is one of 18 whitetails that Avcraft inherited when it took over the company and has been converted in an outside completion centre.
Walter says the wing decision will be based on the product itself and the level of engineering support, something he says some eastern European companies fall short on. "We are sure all the contenders could deliver. What we are most concerned about is getting the quality right," he says.
Walter - a veteran of the former Fairchild Dornier and its predecessors - says employment at the Oberpfaffenhofen plant near Munich will be stepped up from 250 to 400 by the end of next year as the company reaches its annual production target of 18 aircraft: most will have been part of Fairchild Dornier's 850-strong workforce at the time the company stopped trading in early 2002.
Source: Flight International
