Taiwan-based AeroJones Aviation is in the final stages of acquiring all assets and technological rights to the CT series light-sport aircraft and C4 project from Flight Design.
Earlier, AeroJones pursued agreements with Germany’s Flight Design company to establish an aircraft production line to produce the CTLS, a primarily carbon fiber two-seater, equipped with a standard airframe parachute.
Engineers from the German company oversaw efforts to establish AeroJones in Taiwan as a manufacturer, a process that was completed earlier this year. AeroJones has produced full aircraft and is presently preparing to expand manufacturing.
“AeroJones Americas will be established in Florida as a centralized assembly and distribution facility for the AeroJones Aviation-produced CT series aircraft,” said Chris Benaiges, CEO of AeroJones Americas. “This facility will ensure the strictest safety standards and quality control set. AeroJones Americas looks forward to working with and renewing all dealer contracts and leading the way with new and innovative technology in the CTLS aircraft.”
In 2016, CTLS earned Chinese Type Design Approval and an EASA Type Certificate. According to company officials, AeroJones Aviation has invested “considerable resources” to create a new manufacturing facility and built a quality system to assure repeatability.
“AeroJones Americas will have the resources to bring safety, quality control, and the end user experience to a new level for the CT series,” stated AeroJones Americas COO John Hurst.
“AeroJones Aviation is pleased to bring renewed life to the very popular CTLS in America,” said Hsieh Chi-Tai, Executive Vice President at AeroJones. “We are pleased to work with our U.S. representatives at AeroJones Americas as we resume shipments of CTLS to America.”
Headquartered in Central Taiwan Science Park, AeroJones is now manufacturing the CT series models at a new facility in mainland China, then shipping the aircraft to the U.S. for final preparation and delivery. AeroJones Americas will receive the aircraft, assemble them from shipping containers and will deliver to American customers.
The acquisition by AeroJones includes the four-seater general aviation aircraft called C4 that Flight Design first flew in 2015. AeroJones Aviation will pursue FAA approval for the C4.
Virtually every consumer product we buy is made of parts designed and manufactured all over the world. China, being the largest work force in the world, is where a lot of those parts are made.
What matters most is management and quality control – not that workers don’t matter, but whenever there is a fault it always begins with management. Management after all determines who to hire, how to train them, how to equip them with facilities and tools, and how to manage quality. Taiwanese are simply Asians, they aren’t communist, they are a small nation, but highly capable with a relatively high standard of education. There are various advantages to having a management company based in Taiwan. If in their business model, it works for them, then all we need care about is the price and quality and utility of their product – you either buy it or you don’t buy it.
I made it clear to Cessna I would never set foot in a ChiCom Skycatcher and that goes for CT. The marketing guy at Cessna that answered me was really nasty with his reply. The article stated the airframes will be produced on the mainland and assembled an Taiwan. They are after every company they can lay hands on all while building their military as fast as they can! I’m not going give them any help!
Amen brother…I’m with you
Again, Taiwan is NOT mainland China. These planes will be made better than in the Ukraine.
They are seperate countries, but read the article carefully. AeroJones is based in Taiwan, but production will be in an unnamed city in mainland China.
Headquarters is Taichung, Taiwan.
Factory is in Xiamen, China.
American office/ USA assembly is Deland, Florida.
This is all new and sales, service and support will need to be critically looked at.
There is currently a German made CTSW for sale on eBay that is missing its nose gear fork. Parts are unavailable to rebuild.
i can appreciate someone not buying a CTLS or C4 for political reasons. But mainland China is making many high quality parts and products. I am unconvinced that quality/safety will be any less from PRC than from Kansas.
I owned a Flight Design CT…I have been following these developments for two years.
Aerojones is a Taiwan company. The transfer of technology and the ramp-up of production has been and still is the responsibility of the Taiwan management and personnel. The production facility can be anywhere. What matters in manufacturing is MANAGEMENT…not the minions doing the day to day work.
I also know this because I was an executive in a multi-national high tech contract manufacturing company that setup some of the first tech factories in China. The point being, it is a MYTH that products made in Asia (including China) are somehow inferior to products made in the USA. It’s not true. The planes made in the Ukraine had tons of quality issues due to management and money problems. The funding and management at Aerojones is top notch. The problems with Cessna’s skycatcher were design and poor management of the product manufacturing, not the work done in China.
Wow GBigs!!! You got one thing right. Management is the problem. To quote you, “What matters in manufacturing is MANAGEMENT…not the minions doing the day to day work.”
I was in a management focus meeting awhile back headed up by a division VP. He had a small dry erase board on an easel with a pyramid drawn on it. At the top was the CEO with the “minions” at the bottom. The body was filled with the appropriate management hierarchy. As he was wrapping up the CEO stood up and said he needed to rectify something. He walked to the podium, picked up the dry erase board and turned it upside down before placing it back on the easel. He turned to the rest of us as he pointed to the “minions” now on top and said, “I don’t want to foster the wrong mindset. Make no mistake about it; this is our company. This is who we are. I am at the bottom doing all I can to support those on the front lines everyday making it happen.” You could have heard a pin drop in that room. We all knew the VP could tell you in 15 minutes flat how to build the Taj Mahal. But stick a saw and a hammer in his hand and he couldn’t build a birdhouse in two weeks if his life depended on it. The VP was gone inside a month. There is a lesson to be learned here.
The company headquarters are based in Taiwan. But the following is a direct quote from the original article, “AeroJones is now manufacturing the CT series models at a new facility in mainland China, then shipping the aircraft to the U.S. for final preparation and delivery.” Do you get it now? MADE IN CHINA!!! That’s what will be stamped on the parts and pieces of these CT aircraft. NO THANK YOU. Any great product can be turned into cheap unreliable crap, especially when it involves the products manufacturing process. I don’t intend to put my life or those of my loved ones in the hands of the Chinese. And like it or not, that’s what anyone buying these planes is doing.
Whats happening in China that ex Corvus (Hungarian) and Pipistrel and now Aerojones wants to produce LSA and UL in China ? They all come as breaking stories but they are in a row weeks apart from each other. Whos next ? Cessna ? RV ?
I must say, German engineering and quality is a well established and trusted hallmark. Chinese…well, not so much. And I’m probably being kind when I say that. Only time will tell if Flight Design can continue to flourish. It’s unfortunate however, because I was about ready to pull the trigger. Now I for one, will have my checkbook in “wait and see” mode while I search out other options.
The Chinese make everything in your house and in your pocket (smartphones). It is a myth they make inferior products. Aerojones is doing CT owners a solid by investing in the product and continuing support and manufacturing given the collapse of the German/Ukrainian company.
Ah, touché! I must admit it is hard to argue with your first point. That is a given and getting worse everyday. I can only say for myself, when I knowingly purchase a Chinese product I’m thinking about price (cheap). When I’m considering something of quality, a Chinese product doesn’t enter my mind. If the battery in my cell phone goes bad I say, “ah shucks,” and buy another one. If the plane one is flying in breaks, an imminent landing is in one’s immediate future, regardless the real estate it’s over. I’ll be stacking the odds in my favor regarding flying.
First thing to remember is Aerojones is a Taiwan company….not mainland China. Products from Taiwan? ASUS, Acer, HTC, Evergreen Marine, Faraday Tech, Foxxcon (makes iPhones).
Every major Asian car maker has plants in Taiwan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Taiwanese_automakers
US companies making product there: Microsoft, Corning, Garmin, IBM, DuPont, 3M. Most of the chips Boeing buys to make passenger planes are made by Taiwan Semiconductor.
Aerojones has a more modern facility with more sophisticated quality control than Flight Design had in Ukraine. The company was ready to make all their planes there before they went belly up.
The article states that Jones is headquartered in Taiwan… with manufacturing in mainland China.