Shareholders have voted to transfer the assets and design rights of Farnborough-Aircraft.com (FAC) to a new company, Farnborough Aircraft Corporation (FACL). FACL, led by contact lens magnate Geoffrey Galley, who owns 25% of FAC, will now restart the process of finding institutional investors to fund development of the company's F1 single-engined turboprop.
FAC founder and chief executive Richard Noble was dismissed as part of the action passed at an extraordinary general meeting last week. Fifty-one per cent of voting shares backed plans by FACL to take over the project, although Galley says that the figure would have been higher if Noble's shareholding of around 30% was discounted. Noble is thought to favour an alternative proposal, Farnborough Aircraft 2002 (FA02), led by shareholder Neil Afram, which would have licensed design work from FAC and retained Noble as project principal.
Richard Blain, FACL company secretary, says that a marketing drive to the financial community will start by the end of the month, once the new venture has renegotiated around £600,000 ($930,000) in outstanding debts. FAC will be closed down by mid-August.
Galley claims his team has been in negotiations with investors including a major US fractional ownership programme's founder and expects to secure an initial £9 million by year end.
This would get the F1 to the provisional design phase, after which FACL will move towards certification before deciding on whether it should license the design or manufacture the aircraft itself.
Source: Flight International