PAUL PHELAN / CAIRNS
Australian light aircraft manufacturer Gippsland Aeronautics could franchise final assembly of its GA-8 Airvan eight-seat utility aircraft. The company says it needs to treble production to meet immediate demand (Flight International, 27 November - 3 December 2001).
Gippsland is reviewing assembly and component manufacture subcontracts in China, Indonesia and South Africa. Managing director Michael Hall says "Canadian interests" have offered rent-free facilities in Toronto to establish an assembly line to avoid shipping engines and avionics from North America to Australia and back. "To meet market demand, we're going to have to look at franchising the production to companies that have the capability to put the aircraft together at least in the first stages," says Hall.
Meanwhile, Vancouver-based Advanced Wing Technologies will design and manufacture floats, and secure a supplemental type certificate for floatplane conversions, aiming to replace some of the 700 de Havilland Beavers in North America.
Indonesian Aerospace is also seeking sub-assembly manufacturing contracts, and Gippsland's Indonesian distributor Satmarindo has sold the GA-8 as a feeder aircraft to provincial airlines, and expects sales of more than 10 units a year. Hall points to a similar demand in southern Africa.
Gippsland expects to sell the eight-seat Airvan for under A$600,000 ($310,000) - well below the US$440,000 of a six-seat Cessna 206 turbo.
Hall says that the company's two highest priorities are to produce a diesel variant and a stretched10-seat turboprop military version, the GA-10T Tasker. A three-year development project has been launched for the GA-10T, which will be powered by a 310kW (420hp) Rolls-Royce 250 engine.
Gippsland is negotiating with Thielert over the use of the 100kW TAE 135 diesel to power the eight-seat aircraft. Hall says that the scarcity of Avgas in some parts of the developing world makes a diesel variant essential.
Source: Flight International