Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE
Indonesia's IPTN is approaching international aerospace manufacturers and banks simultaneously, seeking backing for the N-250 as government funding for the turboprop programme begins to dry up.
The company has been forced to scrap plans to produce a fourth N-250 prototype, while assembly of the third (PA3) test aircraft has come to a virtual halt. Flight testing of the first prototype and the second, full-size, PA2 is continuing, at a much reduced pace, because the International Monetary Fund ordered support for the state-run manufacturer to stop.
The company is understood to have made approaches recently to Boeing, British Aerospace and Deutsche Bank, among others. Ilham Habibie, IPTN vice-president and son of Indonesian president Bacharuddin Habibie, has also paid a visit to Taiwan in an effort to secure support from the island's main aeronautical player Aerospace Industrial Development.
In response, potential investors are telling IPTN that the company needs to be restructured and that a proper business plan must be put in place before any support can be considered. "Who is going to put money into Bandung unless they can see that things are changing?" asks one industry observer.
The development of the 64/69-seat passenger aircraft has fallen seriously behind schedule and, without a fresh injection of cash, its future must be in doubt. IPTN's original schedule called for the roll-out of a third prototype in June 1996, but because of earlier certification conformity problems, and - more recently - the financial crisis in Indonesia, the programme has been delayed repeatedly.
Efforts are now focused on designing PA3 to perform the flight test and certification functions originally intended for PA4, such as production flight test procedures, tolerance development and cabin interior systems. Sources say that all assembly work on the aircraft has come to a halt in the interim.
Meanwhile, there are growing signs that IPTN's hold on the air transport market in Indonesia is starting to erode, as Jakarta begins to ease an 18-year-old restriction on the importation of helicopters. Indonesian Air Transport has acquired two secondhand Eurocopter AS350s, the first of its type to enter local service.
Rotary-wing production in Bandung has been cut back, with licence-built NAS332 Super Pumas and NBO105 helicopters unsold. With IPTN focusing more of efforts to sell its co-produced CN-235, it is unclear whether the more liberal approach will extend to foreign fixed-wing types.
Source: Flight International
