STAR KRAFT IS confident of launching full-development of its eight-seat twin-engine aircraft with a team of investors and aerospace companies which is now being formed.
Company president Roger Kraft says: "We will know within 90 days whether we will have that team pulled together." The involvement of one of two investment groups which could become partners is a direct result of new-found links with the Orenda division of Hawker Siddeley Canada, which is supplying its Orenda 600 piston engines to the project.
Other team members include two unidentified "big-league" aerospace companies, at least one of which would be responsible for manufacturing the aircraft, now called the Star Kraft 700.
The company says that certification costs are estimated at between $30 million and $40 million. Star Kraft plans to raise the first $10 million and then "make a public offering for future short- and long-term capital reasons".
Star Kraft originally conceived the all-composite pusher/tractor aircraft as a kitplane, but opted for full-scale manufacture and certification "because of FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] rulings on home-builts". A prototype aircraft, on display at NBAA, has accumulated just 100h of testing since first being flown in December 1994.
It has been flown to a speed of 275kt (510km/h) at 30,000ft (9,000m) and this "...could be 300kt once it's cleaned up", says Kraft. The aircraft is now fitted with Teledyne Continental 350 engines, but with the Orenda power plants is expected to reach "350kt at 30,000ft".
The unconventional aircraft, which has one nose-mounted propeller and another in the tail, will be for sale at around $1.6 million.
Source: Flight International
