Kate Sarsfield/LONDON
The Swift Museum Foundation, owner of the Globe Swift light aircraft type certificate, has granted intellectual rights to LoPresti for the Swift-based Fury design.
The move clears the way for LoPresti, based at Vero Beach, Florida, to begin certificating its all-metal two-seat side-by-side piston single. The move draws to an end a bitter two-year battle between the two entities over the ownership rights to the Fury design, although a separate outstanding dispute between LoPresti and Swift licence owner Aviat Aircraft is still blazing.
"We have signed a formal agreement with the Swift Museum, saying that LoPresti is the sole owner of the modifications designed and developed by our team for the Fury. We have agreed not to use the Swift name in promotional material," says LoPresti managing director Roy LoPresti.
The LoPresti Fury has had a chequered history. The aircraft, originally the SwiftFury and based on the 1946 Globe Aircraft design, was developed under licence by LoPresti Piper, which spent more than $7 million on "improvement, flight testing and design work". When Piper went bankrupt in 1991, it withdrew support for the SwiftFury, leaving LoPresti with insufficient funds to extend the Globe Swift licence. It was transferred to Aviat, and the aircraft, which is still being developed, was renamed the Millennium Swift.
"The final resolution of the SwiftFury programme ownership languished for several years although LoPresti has continued to fund and direct its development. Now the dust has settled, we hope to secure the remaining investment by March to fund the programme through certification and first deliveries [planned for late 2001]," adds LoPresti. The company plans to claw back the bulk of the early 1990s 569 aircraft orderbook.
The 10-month legal dispute between Aviat, based in Afton, Wyoming, and LoPresti continues, with Aviat accusing its competitor of violating trademark and "trade dress" laws. Aviat is objecting to the physical form of the Fury, believing that it will create market confusion with Aviat's Swift.
LoPresti, meanwhile, has responded with a counter lawsuit alleging that Aviat "illegally appropriated design data and parts" from the original LoPresti Piper SwiftFury design for its 135kW (180hp) Millennium Swift (Flight International, 7-13 July, 1999).
Source: Flight International
