New Zealand aircraft manufacturer Pacific Aerospace Limited (PAL) plans to put the E-350 Expedition back into production next year.
The E-350 Expedition is a cross-country, rugged backcountry bush plane designed and originally marketed by Canadian company Found Aircraft. PAL acquired the ownership and manufacturing rights of the E-350 Expedition from Found Aircraft, which went into receivership in 2013.
Already FAA-certified, the E-350 will be manufactured at Pacific Aerospace’s headquarters in Hamilton, New Zealand, from the second quarter of 2017.
“Pacific Aerospace has made a name for itself by manufacturing aircraft that can perform where others can’t," said PAL Chief Executive Damian Camp.
“We identified this as an opportunity to take the E-350 to markets it’s never been, utilising our strong distribution network of regional partners across the globe.”
PAL recently launched a joint venture company, Beijing Pan-Pacific Aerospace Technology (BPAT), in Changzhou, China, which will manufacture the P-750 SETP and, in the future, the E-350.
“Once the E-350 is established in China, for which we believe there will be a very strong demand, we have the option of assembling the aircraft in our brand new facility at Changzhou," Camp said.
PAL general manager of global markets, Mark Crouch, said adding the E-350 to the company’s product range would help meet the demands of smaller operators and assist them to grow into a larger aircraft.
“The addition of the E-350, including the float plane and amphibian option, really opens new doors for us in regards to overseas relationships and sales opportunities,” Crouch said.
“The float plane market in particular is a very large but mostly unseen market with a large number of very old aircraft coming to the end of their productive lives. The E-350 is ideally placed to offer customers a chance to move up to a modern, state-of-the-art higher performance aircraft that will do all their old aircraft did, and more.”
The E-350 is powered by a 325-hp Lycoming IO-580 with a turbo-charged engine option. It can carry a full load of passengers, baggage, and fuel for 750 nautical miles.