Aircraft
Epic forges ahead on certification process
Epic Aircraft continues development of its all-composite turboprop singles and very light jets, though without the $200 million in funding pledged by India

Epic Aircraft continues development of its all-composite turboprop singles and very light jets, though without the $200 million in funding pledged by Indian billionaire Dr. Vijay Mallya last September at the NBAA Con- vention. The deal with Mallya isn’t dead, Epic CEO Rick Schra-meck told AIN, but has become “more complicated due to other outside partners.”

Schrameck’s carefully chosen words refer to Airbus, which Mallya–the CEO of Kingfisher Airlines, one of the European aircraft manufacturer’s best customers–got involved in the deal to help Epic with FAA certification. The problem isn’t so much with Airbus as it is with parent company EADS and, more specifically, its subsidiary Socata, which happens to manufacture a turboprop single–the TBM 850–that would compete with the to-be-certified Epic Dynasty turboprop single.