Piper CEO Kevin Gould said at Sun 'n Fun on Tuesday he's "encouraged" by the current economy, and his company will expand production by more than 75 percent this year, compared to 2009. Gould wouldn't hazard a guess, however, how long it might take to return to 2008 levels. Since production in 2009 declined by about two-thirds compared to 2008, even a 75-percent improvement shows there is a still a long way to go. Nonetheless, Gould and other Piper execs were upbeat, noting that the company's owner, Imprimis, is "in it for the long haul." Piper also announced that Forward Vision Systems' EVS-100 and DVS-600 Enhanced Vision Systems are now available for installation in the Malibu, Matrix and Mirage models.
The company also plans to offer a system for the Meridian as soon as it is available to work with the Meridian's higher performance envelope (up to 30,000 feet). Gould said Piper has hired 60 engineers to work on the PiperJet project, and they recently completed the Preliminary Design Review, which showed that the design is on track to meet its performance goals. Soon the crews will start to build the first conforming production prototype.
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