Diamond Aircraft has received a $19.6 million ($19.2 million) "repayable investment" from the Canadian government towards the research and development of its D-JET personal jet. The move coincides with Diamond's decision to manufacture the $1.4 million all-composite, five-seat aircraft at its facility in London, Ontario, where the Williams FJ33-powered D-JET's research and development programme is based.
The Canadian government¹s investment project will be funded from its new strategic aerospace defence initiative, designed to support strategic industrial research and pre-competitive development projects in the aerospace, defence, space and security industries. "This investment will play a vital role in enabling our company to complete the final development, flight testing and certification of the D-JET, and to complete our transition to production," says Diamond Aircraft president Peter Maurer.
The $95 million D-Jet R&D programme began in 2003, and the company has since received $11 million from the Ontario government to help fund manufacturing and staff training costs. Two D-Jet prototypes are undergoing flight testing, with the third aircraft expected to join the test fleet by the end of the month and the fourth in the middle of the year. Diamond says it has more than 300 orders for the Garmin G1000-equipped D-JET, which is earmarked for Canadian type certification in the third quarter.
Source: Flight International
