Warrior (Aero Marine) is stepping up its fund-raising effort to complete development and first flight of its Centaur six-seat seaplane prototype. The UK-based company says earlier funding pledges, which would have taken the programme through to first flight, have been withdrawn and development work has been slowed. Warrior managing director James Labouchere admits there is a deep-rooted and often well-founded reluctance on the part of investors to plough their money into light aircraft start- ups. "It is very difficult to convince investors to part with their money as there have been so many failures in this industry and a lot of money has been lost," he says. "However the Centaur concept is unique and will have huge appeal across the commercial and general aviation sectors," he adds, with potential demand for over 4,000 aircraft.
Labouchere says the majority of production tooling is in place at its US research and development and assembly base in Sanford, Maine, and that the prototype fuselage is complete and awaiting installation of the 350hp (260kW) Textron Lycoming IO540-J2B engine.
Source: Flight International
