23 July 2012

Glasair Aircraft Sold to Jilin Hanxing Group of China

In what is becoming an increasingly frequent story yet another US aircraft manufacturer has been sold to a Chinese company. This time it is kit maker Glasair Aircraft, who build the Glasair and Glastar series of kit planes in Arlington, Washington, that has been sold.

The buyer is a private Chinese company, Jilin Hanxing Group, who have formed a new company to operate Glasair, Glasair Aviation USA LLC.

The new owners say that they plan to certify the Glastar Sportsman design and retain all production and jobs in the USA. Of note a certified version of the Glastar was previously produced for a short time in Canada as the Symphony SA-160.

So here is how the foreign ownership list now looks:

  • Cirrus Aircraft - Government of the Peoples Republic of China
  • Continental Engines - Government of the Peoples Republic of China
  • Diamond Aircraft - majority owned by Medrar Financial Group, Dubai
  • Epic Aircraft - Engineering LLC, Russia
  • Glasair Aircraft - Jilin Hanxing Group, China
  • Hawker Beechcraft - Superior Aviation Beijing, China
  • Liberty Aerospace - 75% owned by the Kuwait Finance House, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait Finance House of Bahrain
  • Piper Aircraft - Government of Brunei
  • Superior Air Parts - Weifang Tianxiang Technology Group, China

I wonder who will be next.

10 July 2012

Pilots N Paws Canada Launches

by Gini Green, Founder, Pilots N Paws Canada

Pilots N Paws Canada connect general aviation pilots with responsible Canadian rescue groups and shelters to help in the adoption process for animals at risk of being destroyed. Volunteer pilots under our program help move animals from areas they are threatened, to areas that their chances of adoption are increased, thereby reducing the number of healthy animals killed every year because no-one could or would care for them.

Our mandate is to only work within Canada with Canadian pilots and only work with responsible Canadian rescues and shelters.

Pilots N Paws has been an extremely successful program in the US and we hope our own Canadian organization will be equally successful but we need your help to get the word out to general aviation pilots. Could you please consider circulating our flyer which is attached or posting our press release to your website?

If anyone has any questions, please send them my way! I know there are a lot of questions regarding the tax benefits available for pilots flying with us.

Hawker Beechcraft To Be Purchased By Superior Aviation Beijing

In what has become the repeat of a very familiar story, another financially ailing US aerospace company has been bought out by Chinese interests.

Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) was a new company put together in 2006 from the old Raytheon Aircraft, purchased for US$3.3B by Onex Partners and GS Capital Partners, part of Goldman Sachs. That was all well and good, but the owners insisted that the company pay for its own purchase, which meant it was carrying US$500,000 a day in interest payments. It was just staying afloat when the 2008 recession hit and bizjet orders dried up. Anyone who thought a company with that kind of debt could survive the recession wasn't paying attention.

The company hired a new CEO, turnaround specialist Steve Miller, who planned to keep it out of bankruptcy, but on 3 May 2012, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy anyway. Despite attempts to restructure the huge debt burden of more than US$2.14B (the last count, as of September 2011), it seems that it was either going to be sold or cease to exist. The final result was that Superior Aviation Beijing of The People's Republic of China made the best offer for US$1.79B. The deal does not include Hawker Beechcraft Defense Co., the subsidiary that builds two military aircraft, the T-6 trainer and the derivative AT-6 light attack aircraft. That exclusion was most likely to avoid any hold-ups in US government approval of the sale.

Superior Aviation Beijing and HBC now have 45 days to put the details together, but it is probably close to a done deal, putting HBC on the same list as a growing number of US aerospace companies that have been recently sold to foreign interests:

  • Hawker Beechcraft - Superior Aviation Beijing, China
  • Superior Air Parts - Weifang Tianxiang Technology Group, China
  • Epic Aircraft - Engineering LLC, Russia
  • Diamond Aircraft - majority owned by Medrar Financial Group, Dubai
  • Cirrus Aircraft - Government of the Peoples Republic of China
  • Continental Engines - Government of the Peoples Republic of China
  • Liberty Aerospace - 75% owned by the Kuwait Finance House, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait Finance House of Bahrain
  • Piper Aircraft - Government of Brunei

As I have noted before while selling out the whole US aerospace industry to foreigners may not be seen as a good thing, when these companies all needed domestic financial help none was forthcoming. This has meant that each had a choice between the company ceasing to exist or being bought out by middle eastern or far eastern interests.

The bottom line is that if Americans are really worried about this issue then they would put up the money and buy these companies themselves. In the capitalist system the market sorts these things out and if Americans don't want their domestic aerospace industry then apparently other people do.

04 July 2012

Transport Canada To Require TAWS

Transport Canada announced today that they will require terrain awareness and warning systems (TAWS) to be installed in all private turbine-powered and commercial airplanes with six or more passenger seats.

TC Press release:

The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today announced new regulations to improve aviation safety in Canada. The new regulations require private turbine-powered and commercial airplanes with six or more passenger seats to be equipped with an alert system known as the “terrain awareness and warning system” (TAWS).

"While Canada has one of the safest aviation systems in the world, we are committed to the continuous improvement of aviation safety," said Minister Lebel. “Terrain awareness and warning systems will help save lives."

The system provides acoustic and visual alerts to flight crews when the path of their aircraft is likely to collide with terrain, water or obstacles — a situation that can happen when visibility is low or the weather is poor. This gives the flight crew enough time to take evasive action.

The new regulations will also significantly increase safety for small aircraft, which fly into remote wilderness or mountainous areas where the danger of flying into terrain is highest.

Under the new regulations, operators will have two years to equip their airplanes with TAWS.

The regulations comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s standards and bring Canadian regulations closer to those of other aviation authorities, including the United States and European Union. Canada’s Transportation Safety Board also recommends the wider use of TAWS to help pilots assess their proximity to terrain.