Under New Management, Looking For New Home

Although AOPA won't announce the winner of their new Commander until next year, one thing is certain. They won't give it to us. Well, if your heart is set on a Commander, there's good news in store for you. You may not win the AOPA Commander either, but you may soon be able to buy a new one.

The Commander Premier Aircraft Corporation (CPAC) finalized the purchase of Commander Aircraft Corporation (CAC). CPAC, a group of 50 investors from several nations, bought CAC from its bankruptcy trustee last Monday. June 29th. The assets include the FAA type certificates for the Commander line of four place, high performance, single engine aircraft, as well as all jigs, tooling, and other manufacturing assets necessary to produce new Commanders.

"As a business, we begin life where most companies seeking to produce new aircraft find themselves after investing 3 to 5 years, and up to $100 million, in risky development and testing," said Joel M. Hartstone, CPAC's President and CEO.

"We have the advantage of owning the type certificate for the safest, and most modern designed, aircraft in its class. The Commander's design, engineering, construction, and materials - the foundation of its type certificate - are already proven by decades of actual, in-fleet service. The Commander is respected domestically and internationally, and supported world wide by maintenance facilities that already know how to service Commander aircraft."

Over 50 owners of Commander aircraft, from several different countries, banded together to form CPAC and ensure that new Commanders will be available with a factory to support the global fleet of about 1,000 aircraft with parts and service.

"Our Company was born because of the passion Commander owners have for their aircraft," Hartstone said. "We intend to get our parts and service operations in place as quickly as possible and serve them with the same passion."

The deal requires the company to relocate from the old facilities at the Wiley Post Airport in Bethany, OK. A new location has not yet been announced.

 "CPAC expects to begin production early in 2006," said Claudia S. Horn, a CPAC director and Chief Financial Officer. "However, we might make only 15 aircraft in our first year of production. Frankly, we expect demand for new Commanders to exceed supply for at least two years."

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) picked the Commander as its 2005 membership sweepstakes aircraft, so the Commander is already a "top of mind" aircraft to most pilots. The sweepstakes Commander, with its advanced, Chelton "highway in the sky" glass panel, is displayed at all major air shows, and every month an article appears in AOPA's magazine for members.

The AOPA Commander will make an appearance at the Commander Owners Group Annual Fly-In in Sedona, Arizona in October, as will AOPA President, Phil Boyer. The Commander Owners Group (COG) is a long-standing, worldwide, type association of Commander aircraft owners.

"We want to thank Phil and the AOPA for their faith in the Commander type design," said Hartstone. "It was risky to pick a plane as the sweepstakes plane knowing that the last company to produce it was lingering in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case."

"Obviously, the AOPA did not want to give away a plane with a service life shortened by lack of factory parts and support," he added. "The AOPA's faith that someone would buy the assets, manufacture the Commander, and support the existing fleet, including the sweepstakes Commander, is a testament to its high regard for the Commander design. CPAC intends to justify that faith."

FMI: www.commanderair.com