A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

The Netherlands’ Fokker Techniek, a division of GKN (Booth U89), arrives at EBACE 2018 on the heels of being tapped by long-term customer K5-Aviation to design and perform the first VIP completion on an ACJ319neo. The project is slated to commence in May 2019, with redelivery scheduled in early 2020.

 


Jeff Armitage, Fokker’s managing director, said it is “a privilege that K5 selected our engineering and completion once more.” Luca Madone of Germany’s K5 called the contract award “a logical continuation of the existing relationship both companies have from previous projects,” adding, “We believe Fokker will deliver again on time and according to our highest expectations.”

 


Keeping the interior weight low to increase the aircraft’s range and payload is a focus of the completion, and that comes down to “how we build the monuments, how we construct a lot of the filling compounds, and special techniques and attention to reducing weight throughout,” said Johan van Dorst, Fokker’s sales director.

 


The previous ACJ Fokker completed for K5, which also features a lightweight interior, can fly nonstop from Munich to Tokyo—approximately 4,590 nm—and the customer wants to extend maximum range with the neo’s more fuel-efficient engines.

 


For its onboard connectivity, Fokker will install Gogo’s 2Ku-band service, as it did last year on the previous K5 ACJ, which made Fokker “the first one in the [European] market” with the 2Ku-band installation design and system integration approved under an EASA STC, van Dorst said.

 


<h2>Revived Completion Op﻿s</h2>

 


Currently, Fokker is completing under contract to Boeing Business Jets a green BBJ ordered by the Dutch Government for transport of government officials and the Dutch Royal family. Fokker designed the interior—a two-cabin layout configured for 24 passengers—and the aircraft is scheduled for redelivery next year.

 


The activity represents a resurrection of Fokker’s completion services since its acquisition by GKN Aerospace in 2015. Fokker, an Airbus Approved Outfitter and Boeing Recommended Center, had largely retreated from the VIP completions and retrofit business following the global economic downturn at the end of the last decade, but is now ready to compete aggressively.

 


“We’re looking to put our name out as a ‘go to’ alternative to traditional, existing completion centers,” said a GKN representative. “We see that as a real growth area, given the skills, talent, and resources immediately available that Holland is renowned for.”

 


GKN believes Fokker, in addition to engineering expertise and “a slight advantage in our long heritage in [aircraft] construction and conversions,” has “a competitive edge in South Netherlands in price as well, compared to our major competition in Switzerland and Germany.”

 


Fokker and GKN have also developed with Boeing Business Jets the SkyView Panoramic window for the OEM’s eponymous executive airliners, introduced at EBACE 2015. The triple-wide window, originally scheduled to be available for retrofits and on new BBJs this year, has no release date. “We went through quite a lengthy engineering phase, so a lot of things are ready; however, the costs were high,” said van Dorst, adding, “It’s still under consideration. Technically, it’s all possible.”

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