Smaller Piper Aircraft Plant to Reopen
A year after it was closed in an economy move, the former Piper Aircraft Corp. plant in Lock Haven will reopen with a production run of single-engine, two-seat airplanes--an event made possible by the acquisition of the oldest light-airplane manufacturer in the nation.
The first Taylorcraft F-21B to be built at the newly reopened Piper plant will roll off the assembly line by early September, the plant’s owner announced Tuesday.
“We’ll start by building one a week, and we have the capacity to build two to three a week anytime after that,” said George Ruckle, the area investor who bought the plant from Lear Siegler Inc. for $1 million to provide jobs for unemployed Piper workers.
Ruckle, 59, recently completed the acquisition of Taylorcraft Inc. of Alliance, Ohio--the country’s oldest small plane manufacturer--in a straight cash deal with owner Dorothy Ferris.
Deal Includes Product Rights
Mrs. Ferris, who will be retained as a consultant, said the deal includes product rights to the three light trainer models built by the company, and all assets of the firm, including six partially built planes.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 48-year-old plant, when it reopens, will be the last manufacturer of light trainer aircraft. The complex lies along the Susquehanna River in the Clinton County community of 9,500.
Ruckle, in a telephone interview from the Piper complex, said most of the physical equipment will be moved from Ohio to Lock Haven July 22.
“I’ve been told it’s the end of an era, and I guess it is,” said Mrs. Ferris, 62. “I’ve really become attached to the aircraft over the years.
“I’ll miss the people and the airplane,” she said, adding that she plans to return to her native Downers Grove, Ill.
By her definition a light-class airplane is a two-place, single engine plane whose engine develops less than 150 horsepower.
Ruckle said the plant will start producing 50 F-21B Taylorcraft Aug. 1, and will later start building the newer F-22 and F-22A models, which require official certification prior to a production run. The planes are powered by a 118 horsepower Lycoming engine and have a base price of $26,995.
The plant now employs about 50 of 1,500 former Piper workers in the area, “the cream of the crop,” Ruckle said.
Move Involves Risks
Alan Benasuli, an analyst with the New York investment firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., said the move to build low-cost airplanes was a risky one.
“The recession continues for light aircraft. I see it worsening,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of overcapacity. That end of the market is just not viable.”
Ruckle said he’s been receiving unsolicited queries from government and overseas parties about buying aircraft.
“The time is ripe now,” said Mrs. Ferris. “There’s no competition in this area.”
Jack Cressman, a spokesman for Lear Siegler, said Piper had been consolidated from four plants in 1984 to one, in Vero Beach, Fla., as part of “sizing Piper to profitability.” He said Piper is now concentrating on higher-priced prop-jet aircraft and has long since abandoned the Cub.
Ruckle praised the complex’s previous owner.
“Lear Siegler deserves a four-star rating for corporate responsibility,” he said, noting that the bargain-basement price of $1 million he paid for the plant had been donated to Clinton County by the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company for job-creation programs.
Piper started in Bradford in 1931 as the Taylor Aircraft Corp. It was bought by William T. Piper Sr. and moved to Lock Haven after a fire destroyed the Bradford plant.
Mrs. Ferris said Taylorcraft is a direct lineal descendant of the original company, and has built 14,000 light trainers since 1937.
Piper built almost 77,000 planes in central Pennsylvania before shutting down Aug. 10, 1984.
The Piper family sold its company to Bangor Punta Corp. in 1969. Lear Siegler Inc. took over Bangor Punta in a $290 million deal Feb. 1, 1984.
