Mallya plans to Manufacture Epic Aircraft in India

After making a major, $120 million investment in Epic Aircraft, Dr. Vijay Mallya said he wants to manufacture the very light jet in India and market the Asian-produced aircraft to the Middle East and Asia, according to the Indian press. Related Story
“It certainly makes good economic sense to build in the market you will be supporting,” Epic President and CEO Rick Schrameck told Aviation Today’s VLJ Report. “The idea is to build a company that is going to be more global than we had originally expected and we are just going to move a little quicker. Any company that is not looking at building aircraft using global manufacturing is going to end up on the short end of the stick. This is just something we are doing to be globally competitive. The idea is we must build the least expensive aircraft and tailor the aircraft to markets with the quality, safety and standards required by the company.”
He indicated that, while aircraft will be built in other parts of the world, the company would maintain its Bend, Ore. facility. “The question is: where is the right place to build it for that part of the market?”
“Once the certification process of Dynasty, Victory and Elite is done in the US, I want to manufacture them in India,” Mallya, who is also chair of Kingfisher Airlines, told local press. “Also, considering the enterprise value of the acquisition ($120 million) will rise tremendously after certification by the US Federal Aviation Administration, it will result in good cash flow for us.”
Delivery of the company’s twin-engine Elite VLJ is set for 2009, while certification of the single-engine, six-place Dynasty, which is a turboprop, is scheduled for late 2008. The Dynasty is priced at $2 million, which Mallya said, was well within the means of a “growing number of top-level corporate executives in India, especially those in the real estate and construction industries who need flexibility in travel. The number of private aircraft in India is estimated at between 175 and 200 which projected growth to 500 by 2011.
Last year, Epic broke ground and developed, in a matter of weeks, a new facility dedicated to aircraft certification at Springbank Airport in Calgary. Epic’s investment will ultimately create between 400-600 jobs with an infusion of over $100M in the local economy over three years. Plans to build a 100,000 sq. ft. certification factory are underway with growth mapped to over 400,000 sq ft. of factory space.
Springbank Airport will be the new headquarters for the aircraft manufacturer beginning with an experimental-aircraft customer build center. The preliminary 21,000 sq ft facility will operate as a completion center for the company’s experimental aircraft kits.
The move to open the Springbank facility came with the announcement that the Canadian Center for Aircraft Certification (CCAC) division of the Canadian Center for Aerospace Development would be headquartered at Springbank. Housed in a new 50,000-sq.ft. facility, the CCAC will use a phased approach, initially acquiring approximately $4.2 million of testing and evaluation equipment. Aircraft Investor Resources (AIR), the parent company of Epic, is the anchor tenant at the CCAC.
Aircraft manufacturers will be able to complete certification applications within approximately two and a half years. The time saved will equate to fewer cost overruns, speed to market and reduced external capital requirements. Plans call for meeting customers’ most pressing needs by this fall.
Among the testing and evaluation services anticipated at the CCAC are:
• Materials testing
• Structural testing (full/sub-scale static testing and full scale fatigue testing)
• Dynamic landing gear testing
• Pressurization testing
• Ground vibration testing and flutter analysis
• Flight testing (spin and dive)
• Fire and flammability testing
• Avionics and electro-magnetic interference (EMI) testing.
The CCAC plans to conduct critical tests requiring telemetry and restricted airspace at the Canadian Flight Test Center at Cold Lake and expects the new facility to be able to offer efficient and cost-effective certification solutions to general aviation manufacturers in Canada and the United States. Reciprocity agreements between Transport Canada and the Federal Aviation Administration ensure certification received at the center will be valid in both the United States and Canada. Furthermore, Transport Canada will streamline the certification process by partnering with the CCAC.