Allan Winn/PARIS
ISRAEL AIRCRAFT Industries (IAI) chairman Moshe Keret says, that the company is proceeding with the Galaxy business jet regardless of the search for a new business partner for that part of its operations.
He says that, "plus or minus a few months", IAI still intends to have the Galaxy in the market as a fully certificated aircraft "somewhere in late 1997."
Keret claims that it is IAI policy to seek strategic alliances, and that there is "nothing extraordinary" in its current search for such an alliance for the company's entire corporate-jets business, and not just for the Galaxy project.
"If we find a strategic partner, I will be very happy. But, if not, we will still go ahead on that programme," says the IAI chairman.
Drawings for the Galaxy have now been completed, Keret says. Tooling is being made and metal is now being cut on the first of four prototypes. "We need that prototype a year from now, to meet the certification schedule," he says.
The seating capacity of the Galaxy will be nine-19 not four to six as listed in Flight International, 7-13 June.
Source: Flight International
