B/CA Show News - NBAA 2007 Day 1 - (Page 34) d1p34&35 JM 9/23/07 2:42 PM Page 1 N B A A 2 0 07 Buyers of the $7.15 million SPn get “95% of a Citation XL at 65% of the price,” says Grob Aerospace CEO Niall Olver. Grob Still Targets SPn Certification Next Year Grob Aerospace’s enthusiastic CEO Niall Olver is here at the show, and he can’t wait to sell you the advantages of buying and owning his all-composite SPn light jet. “Our sales pitch is quite simple,” says a bullish Olver. “With the Spn, you get 95% of a Citation XL at 65% of the price.” Respected U.S. fractional operator, PlaneSense, has booked 25 SPns and possibly another 25 more. “Grob’s order book now exceeds 70 real orders, all backed by large deposits, for our versatile $7 million aircraft”, said Olver. Plane Sense, which has been in business since 1995, operates the largest fleet of fractional Pilatus PC12s, and CEO George Antoniadis backs Olver’s belief in the SPn’s operational flexibility. The SPn program did, however, suffer a body blow when SPn prototype P2 crashed tragically late last year. As a result, the horizontal stabilizer has been reinforced and strengthened for all aircraft including P3. Olver admits to lost months, and under a newly set schedule, P3, the first production conforming prototype, should be undergoing taxi trials and possibly first flight during the NBAA show. The fourth aircraft, P4, is due to fly by Christmas with flight test focused on avionics and autopilot certification. Joining these prototypes will be the first two Series production aircraft, S1 and S2, predominantly focusing on reliability testing with full interiors. Icing tests have been completed on un-pressurized P1, which has accumulated over 400 hours flight time. Olver says that he still hopes for second quarter 2008 EASA certification, followed closely by FAA Approval, but will review this after NBAA and the first flight of P3. The first customer delivery is now scheduled for the end of 2008, and PlaneSense will be the first major North American customer to take delivery. Also on the stocks, says Olver, is a derivative aircraft that will probably be announced before SPn certification. Whether he refers to a special mission derivative, or Grob’s planned high altitude HALE recon/environmental aircraft, or as he hinted in London recently, a 19- passenger, 19,000 pound category aircraft, he wouldn’t say. All he would say was, “We are currently involved with a couple of Special Missions projects.” He says that because the SPn is an all-composite aircraft, Grob can quickly reconfigure apertures, windows and radomes for maritime patrol aircraft. “We’re also focused on an air ambulance aircraft version and have four European specialist operators talking to us.” Production SPns have been designed for 28,000 hours of operation, and fatigue and vibration testing on a purpose-built complete aircraft is ongoing at Grob’s factory HQ airfield at Tussenhausen–Mattsies, Germany. Olver says that it was decided about a year ago to fit P3 (and production aircraft) with manual inboard airbrakes/ground spoilers. “This is fairly unusual on an aircraft of this type. They will further augment the aircraft’s short field capability right down to the V-Ref of 100 kts. We’ve found that in the flair, and because the aircraft composite skin is so smooth, the aircraft wants to keep flying. The ground spoiler lever is spring loaded so it can be retracted instantly should the pilot need to fly a go-around. We considered automatic operation but we want to keep the complexity, cost, and maintainability down,” said Olver. “An automatic system would have been heavier and more likely to go wrong.” Leibherr Aerospace has supplied its first SPn trailing link undercarriage set—which has substantial carbon brakes—and which has already been fitted on aircraft P3. Landing gear drop tests are to be completed by month end. “We don’t expect any problems,” said Olver. Grob Aerospace and a full size SPn cabin with Porsche designed interior is on Booth 7365. —Mike Vines PATS Is Expanding at Delaware Facility PATS Aircraft, a unit of DeCrane Aerospace Systems, is expanding by adding hangars and substantially adding to its work force. The company has had to up production of its APU kits because of increased demand for Hawker and Lear aircraft. And its VIP interior completion business is particularly strong due to increased orders from Boeing, independent operators and Embraer. Last year, DeCrane agreed to complete the interiors of Embraer’s new large-cabin business jet, the Lineage 1000, which PATS is managing. To accommodate the new business, the company will expand its Georgetown, DE, facility by adding 34 four hangar bays to the existing seven as well as a 100,000-sq ft manufacturing building. The hangars will be completed in mid 2008 and the new building in early 2009. PATS will ramp up its current local recruitment and training program and hire more than 200 people over the next 18 months; it currently has 600 employees. It has boosted its training programs to make certain the new hires get the necessary skills. Founded in 1976, PATS Aircraft was acquired by DeCrane Aerospace in 1999. In addition to business, VIP and headof-state aircraft, PATS also works with commercial airlines and military aircraft customers. September 25, 2007 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.