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Pawnee hopes to begin filling orders in October
Pawnee Aviation owner Ron Willocks said his company brought home a number of orders for its helicopter kit, and he hopes to obtain federal permission to use a type of welding to enable him to hire a number of local welders to put it into full production.
He said he hopes the Federal Aviation Admin-istration will grant permission to use metal inert gas-type welding instead of tungsten inert gas welding, which will enable him to hire more local welders.
Pending the decision by the FAA, he hopes to ship the first kits in October.
He said the second production model, which he took to the Experimental Aircraft Association annual show in Oshkosh, Wis., was grounded by apparent stone damage to the tail rotor, but the Pawnee display still drew crowds at the show.
Willocks was unable to work on the helicopter for weeks because of prostate surgery and complications from the surgery. Since he has recovered, however, he's solved problems with the craft's General Motors V-8 engine, and rotor balance issues, which caused problems on the earlier model.
Because the crash of the first production craft was blamed on a defective part, the company has decided to use only Boeing-certified and ISO 9000 specialty shops for those critical components.