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| Friday, March 16, 2007 |
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FAA Grants Parts Manufacturing Approval to Commander Premier Aircraft
By FlyingNews @ 7:21 AM :: 442 Views ::
0 Comments :: General Aviation, Small Aircraft Manufacturers
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Commander Premier Aircraft Corporation (CPAC) announced today that the Federal Aviation Administration has awarded Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) to its operating subsidiary, CPAC, Inc. Holding a copy of the FAA’s letter officially granting PMA, Joel M. Hartstone, CPAC President and CEO, said “this is an enormously important milestone for CPAC. It’s like a birthday. With this grant, CPAC begins life as an FAA regulated manufacturing company.” CPAC also announced that it will start accepting orders for new Commanders within two months.
The Commander aircraft to be produced by CPAC at its Cape Girardeau facility are already fully certified by the FAA and CPAC has all production equipment necessary for full scale Commander assembly operations. The primary challenge for CPAC was to create and establish a new Quality Assurance Program in Cape Girardeau that would be acceptable to the FAA. This grant gives CPAC authority from the FAA to certify parts for installation and use in Commander aircraft under its own Quality Assurance Program. “Putting things in the sky is serious business,” Hartstone said. “Our senior management team and our directors are all pilots; we take aviation safety very personally.” The grant came after a quality assurance field audit by FAA inspectors.
CPAC plans to use its PMA grant initially to buy Commander parts made to its specifications by subcontractors to restock its spare parts inventory for the existing Commander fleet. “Our subcontractors produce parts for Commanders by using our design specifications and fitting our molds and other tooling to their machines,” explained Carl Gull, CPAC Vice President – Operations. Under applicable FAA regulations, CPAC is responsible for the quality of parts made by subcontractors as fully as if the parts were made in CPAC’s own factory building.
“Obviously, it’s more difficult to control the quality of parts and products that aren’t made in your own plant, under your own direct management supervision,” said Gull, “so our Quality Assurance Program now addresses the most difficult aspects of a production quality assurance program.” Gull ran the Commander factory for a predecessor owner of the Commander type design, so he is very familiar with this process. Having earned his pilot license as a teenager, Gull first entered the general aviation industry a decade ago, after a 20 year career as a Naval Aviator.
“This puts us solidly on the road to new aircraft production,” Hartstone said. “About 85 percent of a new Commander’s parts are made to CPAC specifications by subcontractors,” Hartstone added, “so the Quality Assurance Program now established could apply to 85 percent of a new Commander.”
As is customary, only a short list of parts is scheduled in CPAC’s initial PMA grant. However, the Quality Assurance Programthat CPAC established for PMA covers all products, parts, and materials purchased by CPAC, whether for resale or for use in factory parts production. With PMA in hand, CPAC can now move quickly to expand the covered parts list to cover parts requested by the owners of existing Commander aircraft. CPAC’s plan is to extend PMA to a larger list of purchased parts and then to factory produced airframe parts, such as ailerons and flaps.
“The expansion of PMA to cover new, factory produced airframe parts will also mark the beginning of new aircraft production operations,” Hartstone said. “Whether we’re making flaps and elevators for new aircraft or for existing Commanders, the factory assembly operations are the same and they are similar to those required for the complete production of a new Commander airframe. We’ll simply roll production from one part of the plane to the next under PMA until we’re staffed to produce new Commander aircraft,” Hartstone continued.
Because the Commander is already certified by the FAA, CPAC could have moved right to new aircraft production. CPAC chose instead to seek PMA. “By first seeking PMA, CPAC can establish a full part sales operation – complimenting its Commander Factory Service Center – to support the existing and new Commander fleet, said Hartstone. “We also wanted to establish a working relationship with the FAA, and to put our QA Program in place to cover the purchasing and warehousing of products, parts, and materials, before we turned to the additional QA requirements for factory production,” added Gull. With PMA granted, CPAC is much more confident in its ability to produce new Commanders later this year. Accordingly, CPAC plans to
begin accepting orders for new Commanders within two months.
Over 50 owners of Commander aircraft, from several countries around the world, banded together in the spring of 2005 to form CPAC to ensure that new Commanders will be available and that a factory will support the global Commander fleet with parts and service. |
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