Story ID: 135Kestrel
Kestrel Selects Garmin
By: Mark Huber
Caption: 
Word Count: 202
Kestrel Aircraft has selected the Garmin G3000 glass-panel touchscreen suite as the primary avionics offering for its in-development single-engine turboprop. Kestrel CEO Alan Klapmeier made the announcement at AirVenture yesterday and offered a program update.

Klapmeier said Kestrel still needs to raise $125 million to see the aircraft through certification. He said Kestrel hopes to start assembling a prototype aircraft next year, but cautioned that that schedule is dependent on the company securing additional funding. “The project is clearly behind schedule because we have not raised the money we needed to or expected to,” he said. If the company raises additional funding in the near term, the aircraft could be delivered to customers as early as 2016, Klapmeier said, acknowledging, “That’s later than we anticipated.”

Kestrel currently employs 110 from its facilities in Superior, Wis., and Brunswick, Maine. Klapmeier and company vice president Steve Serfling said the development program had made good progress over the last year with regard to vendor selection, major component testing, and validation of construction techniques for the all-composite aircraft. This includes the ability to manufacture a single-piece fuselage.

Serfling said certification meetings with the FAA had been “very successful” to date.