Dave Higdon/WITCHITA
TLM Aerospace has acquired the rights to the four-seat Grumman Tiger and Cheetah piston singles, and plans to start production by the year-end at a factory under construction at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in the USA.
TLM, a subsidiary of Taiwan's Tong Lung Metal Industries, plans to start with production of the 135kW (180hp) Textron Lycoming-powered Tiger AG5. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in April 1999. TLM also plans to expand the factory in mid-2000 to accommodate a Cheetah AA5A production line .
Resurrection of the Grumman singles is the latest in a line of similar relaunches, including the 1950s' Don Luscombe History Foundation's Luscombe 11 and Renaissance Aircraft's Luscombe Silvaire 8F, following a trend set by Cessna in 1997 with the revival of its 172 Skyhawk and 182 Skylane piston-single line.
Tong Lung has invested around $15 million in TLM. This figure is expected to double in 2000 with the second phase of expansion and introduction of the Cheetah.
Grumman's Tiger and Cheetah singles have had a chequered history. Conceived by Grumman Aircraft in the mid-1970s, ownership of the designs shifted to Gulfstream when the company acquired Grumman's general aviation line.
Aircraft production was halted, however, until the mid-1980s and the line remained dormant until the early 1990s when American General Aircraft (AGA), which revised and improved the aircraft designs, briefly took over production at its plant in Greenville, Mississippi. TLM acquired the aircraft rights from AGA in 1997, two years after that company went into bankruptcy.
It is believed that TLM has little desire to modify the design in the short term, because of the company's aggressive timetable for erecting the new factory and setting up the production line. TLM plans to deliver around 65 Tigers in the first year of production.
Although the price of the aircraft has not yet been disclosed, it is widely believed that the cost will be similar to the $139,000 which AGA had been charging for the standard Tiger.
Source: Flight International
