Kate Sarsfield/LONDON
Israviation has put back certification of its ST-50 five-seat pusher-turboprop business aircraft to April 1998, six months later than the Israeli company's previously planned schedule.
The delay is the second certification setback experienced in the last 12 months. Israviation declines to give details of the cause of the latest slippage.
The earlier delay meant that certification was put back by several months, to October, with first deliveries planned for two months later. Funding difficulties and damage to its Kiryat Shmona plant in northern Israel by Hezbullah guerrilla rocket-fire were the reasons given for the first delay.
Despite the postponements, Israviation expects to boost its certification effort in the next four months with the addition of the first two production-prototype aircraft now being assembled at Kiryat Shmona. The first is due to have its maiden flight in Israel by the end of September. The second prototype ST-50 is expected to be flown by the end of November.
Customer deliveries of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-powered aircraft are scheduled for the second quarter of 1998.
According to Israviation president Stephane Juffa, the company received 24 intentions to purchase for the $1.25 million ST-50 at the Paris air show in June. He says: "We hope to produce about one aircraft a month for the first 18 months, increasing this number to one a week after that." Serial production is expected to get under way by the end of this year.
Source: Flight International