Fairchild Dornier comes to Asian Aerospace less than a month away from the roll-out of its new 728 airliner, vital to the future of the company.
The 70-85 passenger twinjet is scheduled to make its debut on 21 March at the company's production site at Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich, in Germany.
It will be arguably the most significant event for the organisation since it was acquired by shareholders Clayton Dubilier & Rice and Allianz Capital Partners in 1999. The two organisations hold more than 90% of the stock.
The company announced last month that it had secured additional funding to accelerate development of extended-range versions of both the 728 and the larger 928-to be known as the 728-200 and 928-200 respectively.
Extended-range
Around $600 million will come from the main shareholders while German federal and Bavarian banks have additionally agreed $330 million of loan guarantees on top of existing financial arrangements. European Commission agreement is required for the German component of the financing.
The first baseline 728-100 is due to be delivered in mid – 2003 and Fairchild Dornier would like to offer the extended -range version early in 2004. The 928 is scheduled to enter airline service in 2005.
The extended-range 728-200 will have a range of 3,330km (1,800nm) an increase of 740km over the -100. It will have a strengthened outboard wing common to the 928, a strengthened horizontal stabiliser and stronger landing gear and reinforced fuselage.
A major investment in computer-generated simulations to optimise production and assembly procedures at Oberpfaffenhofen is designed to yield considerable savings in both manpower and costs.
Fairchild Dornier says the investment should save the company some 60% in terms of man-hours in constructing the 728.
Source: Flight Daily News
