Merritt Island, Fla.-based Comp Air is developing an all-composite, pressurized single-engine turboprop called the Model 12. CEO Ron Lueck estimates that it will cost $150 million to get the airplane certified. Lueck has been designing homebuilt/kit aircraft since the 1980s, but the Model 12 will require a separate corporate structure and production facility to meet FAA standards. Lueck said that a new facility will be built in Melbourne, Fla.; that Comp Air already has secured all the necessary funds for the aircraft’s development and serial production ramp-up; and that the company is taking refundable $100,000 customer deposits on the $2.95 million airplane. It had about two-dozen deposits in hand at the end of August and plans to make the move to Melbourne by January 1.
Rather than significantly expanding his small company during the Model 12’s design and certification phases, Lueck has hired two outside engineering firms as well as Auburn University’s aeronautical engineering department to handle those chores under the leadership of Dr. Gil Crouse, Jr. Crouse is an associate professor of aerospace engineering at Auburn and the founder of DaVinci Technologies, the developer of AirplanePDQ aircraft design software.
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