Ready for Take-off
Drive 500m down the road from Hamilton International Airport and you will come to two large hangars which are the home of Pacific Aerospace Corporation. New Zealand's only aircraft manufacturer, Pacific Aerospace is well known, especially in military circles, as the manufacturer of the CT-4 airtrainer, a pretty little aeroplane with side-by-side seating for pilot and instructor, a bubble canopy and a 300 horsepower engine which is used to train pilots by the Royal New Zealand Airforce, The Royal Australian Airforce, The Royal Thai Airforce and a number of others besides. At time of writing it was in fact already on a shortlist for the Israeli Defence Force and, as one might imagine, the IDF is a pretty exacting customer. Pacific Aerospace is also the home of the "Fletcher" aerial top dressing plane (now supplanted by the Cresco) which can be seen wheeling and dumping fertilizer over the hills of New Zealand. In other words, with three successful aircraft in its history, Pacific Aerospace is no newcomer to light aircraft manufacture.
The new multi seat 750XL aircraft
Maintenance being performed on one of PAC's 750 XL aircraft
(click to enlarge)
PAC 750 XL First Flight Over Hamilton, New Zealand, 9/5/01
But what Pacific Aerospace has never tried to do before is build an aircraft as large as the 750XL. Sitting in the hangar, engine cowling removed, and still clad in an ugly ochre primer, the 750XL prototype is easily three times the size of the CT-4 parked nearby Its wingspan is 12.8m, length 11.58m and its maximum loaded weight of 3.2 tonnes makes it twice as large as the two-seat Cresco the firm has been making since the 1970s. But this aeroplane is not the size it is by accident. It is the size it is because three American skydivers who have since set up Utility Aircraft Corporation in the United States to distribute the 750XL were looking for an aeroplane that did not exist.
When they visited general manager Graeme Polleyand his design team in January 2000 they told the Kiwis what they wanted was an aeroplane that could carry 18 jumpers to 14,000 feet in 16 minutes, and preferably for less than US$1 million. (Conceptual statement)
What they liked about New Zealand was that here was a country of people with a can-do attitude and an appetite for thrill-seeking sports and pasttimes which litigation-whipped US manufacturers ran a mile from. After a few mumbled feasibility conversations in the corridor the Hamilton manufacturer accepted the challenge.
This case study is reproduced with permission from e.nz magazine. Subscriptions to e.nz are discounted for schools and TENZ members.
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