AvCraft, which hopes to restart manufacture of the former Fairchild Dornier 328JET, is negotiating with an unidentified eastern European aerospace company to make wings for the future production line after talks with Texas-based M7 collapsed.
AvCraft chief executive Ben Bartel says: "The wing will be made somewhere east of Germany. We expect to have that buttoned down shortly." The company says it is ready to transfer tooling to the new site and could not reach agreement with M7 because "we weren't prepared to pay the prices that were being charged in San Antonio".
The company plans to set up the jigs and have up to three wing shipsets manufactured to obtain German airworthiness approval, a process which Bartel estimates will take up to 10 months. Speaking at the Speednews regional and corporate suppliers conference, he said the longest lead time to restart the 328JET is the availability of Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308B turbofans, which will not be ready for "around one year". The company's goal is to resume manufacturing by year-end, and start delivery of the first "new-new" 328JETs late in second quarter 2004. However, some observers express doubt that AvCraft will achieve this ambitious target.
The company has completed delivery of the last of five partially completed aircraft it inherited and is close to placing the last of 18 white-tails. It also has some components for a further 10 airframes.
Source: Flight International
