Canada's Orenda Recip has clinched its first original equipment manufacturer contract after a multimillion dollar deal with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). Orenda will supply and install its OE-600 V-8 piston engine for a multimission aircraft, under development at TAI's Ankara, Turkey-based factory.
"The agreement is expected to result in the supply of up to 300 powerplant packages over the life of the programme, with a potential value of $45 million," says Orenda general manager Peter Jackson.
Debert, Nova Scotia-based Orenda will supply the complete "firewall-forward" package, which includes the engine, mounting structure, accessories, propeller and cowling. First deliveries are slated for mid-1999 with subsequent production packages following at a rate of about three a month.
The single-engined, low-wing monoplane, which is being designed for agricultural and firefighting operations, is the first indigenous design offered by TAI. The aircraft, which has yet to be named, "-is being built to US Federal Aviation Administration standards to assist in future export sales". First flight is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 1999, followed by deliveries in 2000.
The TAI contract is the latest in a series of orders for the recently certificated OE-600. Until now, these have consisted only of retrofit programmes on a variety of aircraft, including the Beechcraft King Air C90, Rockwell Twin Commander, Lancair Tigress kitplane and the de Havilland DHC-3 single Otter, for which the company has completed initial flights on the landplane and floatplane configurations. "If current contracts meet market expectation, the backlog will exceed 500 engines and installation kits valued at $75 million," says Jackson.
Source: Flight International
