Standard-Pacific Corp., a Costa Mesa-based residential construction...

Standard-Pacific Corp., a Costa Mesa-based residential construction company, said it sold its Panel-Air Corp. unit to Ciba-Geigy Ltd. for about $3.3 million in cash and will use proceeds from the sale to reduce short-term debt.

Panel-Air, also based in Costa Mesa, makes fiberglass, metal and composite parts for commercial and military aircraft.

Ciba-Geigy is a multinational based in Switzerland and has interests in agricultural chemicals, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals and plastics.

For the first nine months, Standard-Pacific had net income of $12.2 million on revenue of $174.8 million, compared to net income of $7.8 million on revenue of $136.1 million.