Kamenz, GERMANY / 6 April 2015 - Light-Sport Aircraft are fully manufactured light aircraft that comply with ASTM standards accepted by FAA and many other national aviation authorities. In the USA where this sector was given birth, the Flight Design company has been the most successful when measured in total aircraft delivered to market (approaching 400 units).
In late March 2015, Flight Design is pleased to announce that a second full-scale production facility for the CTLS series has completed a full manufacturing evaluation before starting serial production of the popular LSA for the Asia region. In this news release the German manufacturer and its U.S. representative are pleased to provide a first look at AeroJones Aviation.
Flight Design GmbH CEO Matthias Betsch, Director Christian Wenger, and Flight Design USA President Tom Peghiny went to Xiamen, China to witness the completion of the first conforming CTLS by AeroJones, a Taiwanese company working in China. The German and American team toured the AeroJones facility in Xiamen, located directly across the sea from Taiwan.
"We examined a batch of four AeroJones-produced prototypes," said Peghiny. "After training was conducted on composite structures, the team fabricated multiple prototypes, of which the fully conforming CTLS was the fourth built by the company."
Methodically pursuing the process of manufacturing, AeroJones made an initial prototype from fiberglass mimicking the structure of German-built all-carbon fiber models. The second assembled by AeroJones was made of carbon and used for load testing, which it passed successfully.
A third prototype was also made fully using carbon. It was painted and assembled as a complete airplane but it was not fully conformed to the design and will only be used as a static display.
The final prototype, also built 98% of carbon fiber as are the company's European produced airplanes, was a fully conforming article that complies with all ASTM standards. Flight Design earned Chinese Type Design Approval (TDA) in 2010 for its CTLS. Upon its completion of the prototyping exercise, Flight Design leaders, AeroJones management, and Chinese manufacturing teams posed with the final conforming article.
"Now that they have completed the run of four prototypes culminating in a fully conforming article, AeroJones can begin the effort for serial production," explained Wenger, who besides being a corporate board member, oversees procurement for the German headquarters.
AeroJones builds on the foundation work by Daniel Guenther and Andrey Yavniy of Flight Design. "Andrey Yavny was the man who doubled Ukraine production output during 2005 to 2007 with more than 250 CT aircraft delivered in 2007," observed Wenger. "Andrey has been involved in the project from the beginning." As Flight Design's leading production people Yavniy and Guenther were sent to assist AeroJones.
At AeroJones, all materials are identical to those used by Flight Design production facilities in Europe. AeroJones demonstrated it is a fully competent manufacturer of the LSA airplane with all manufacturing processes except for heat treating and plating done in house. All welding, laser and high-pressure water cutting can be done in house at AeroJones.
"AeroJones parent company GSEO, although a Taiwanese company, has worked in China for 20 years building high-tech optical products," said Betsch. "The customers for these products are known as very demanding buyers who go to great lengths to assure vendors match design quality. GSEO President Jones Chen brought his experience and his passion for aviation into AeroJones."
"In cooperation with the province of Jiangsu, AeroJones is breaking ground on a 250,000 square foot, brand-new production facility based in Changzhou," added Betsch. Aero Jones will produce airframes for the Light-Sport CTLS as well as Flight Design's four seat C4 that is expected to take its first flight very soon.
For more about AeroJones: www.AeroJones.com
FACTS ABOUT FLIGHT DESIGN
Flight Design is a 27-year-old manufacturer based in Germany. The company remains the worldwide Light-Sport Aircraft market leader thanks to its popular CT series of aircraft. Nearly 2,000 of these aircraft are flying in 39 countries. One of the first aircraft certified under ASTM International standards in 2005, the CT ("composite technology") boasts the largest fleet of LSA in America after ten years. Flight Design sold the first LSA to India and was the first LSA to earn Chinese Type Design Approval. Three times a CT has been flown around the world. In 2011, the German company unveiled its C4 four seat aircraft based on the CT technology.
