After months of legal wrangling and speculation, the assets of the SJ30 light jet program were purchased on April 7 from bankrupt Emivest Aerospace by the parent company of one of the aircraft’s primary airframe suppliers, Utah-based Metalcraft Technologies, for $3.5 million in cash.
Sources close to the transaction who requested anonymity told AIN that the Metalcraft purchase is the first step in restarting aircraft production with a “clean slate” free of long-term debt and other obligations incurred by several previous owners that were viewed as retarding the program’s progress. That clean slate apparently includes rationalizing production including the closure of Emivest’s Martinsburg, W.Va. plant, producer of the airplane’s wings, and its San Antonio headquarters and final assembly hangar. Aircraft production is expected to be moved to Utah. These same sources said that a U.S.-based investor pool has pledged up to $150 million to get the SJ30 program going again. “This is a positive development,” one source said. From its inception in 1989, the SJ30 has racked up costs estimated at close to $1 billion, while delivering only four of the $7.25 million jets.
