New Jet Having Trouble Getting Off the Ground
A Long Beach company’s efforts to launch the first new business airplane in Southern California in decades were set back at least six months as it works to overcome several technical issues, Advanced Aerodynamics & Structures Inc. said Tuesday.
Carl Chen, a former Hughes Aircraft engineer who heads the small aviation concern, said Advanced Aerodynamicswon’t obtain Federal Aviation Administration certification until the middle of next year.
In May, Chen told The Times that he hoped to begin production of the Jetcruzer 500 aircraft by this time and to win FAA certification by year-end.
Chen blamed testing delays and adjustments to the six-seat aircraft’s oil cooling system, air inlets and landing-gear doors for the setback.
Additionally, Advanced Aerodynamics is still building the test model the FAA will fly in the certification program.
The Jetcruzer is a turboprop aircraft that will fly at speeds up to 345 mph and will have a cruise altitude of as much as 30,000 feet. It will sell for about $1.5 million. The company claims to have deposits for about 188 aircraft, giving it an order backlog of about $226 million.
Advanced Aerodynamics also said Tuesday that it had lined up an additional $20 million in private funding to complete the tests and launch production.
The company burned up its first $20 million of capital from Taiwanese industrialist Song Gen Yeh, whose family controls 30% of the venture, on an earlier aircraft that won FAA certification but never went into production.
Advanced Aerodynamics then spent $35 million more from a stock offering to build its Long Beach factory and developing the Jetcruzer 500. And it has poured at least $10 million more in private money into the program.
If it can get the plane to market, Advanced Aerodynamics will be entering the business jet industry during a rebound. Shipments of small planes rose 11% to 2,504 last year, and that’s on top of a 45% increase in 1998, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn.
Shares of Advanced Aerodynamics dipped 9 cents to close at $2.41 in Nasdaq trading Tuesday. The stock has fallen 24% this year.
