If final hurdle can be cleared, it appears Epic LT plane production can resume in Bend

From KTVZ.COM news sources

Chinese firm top bidder for Bend’s bankrupt Epic Air

Last hurdle for more planes in Bend: Deal with factory’s landlord

It might have seemed all but impossible a week, a month or six months ago, but it’s looking more likely that production will resume in Bend of the Epic LT kit airplane – if a deal with the landlord, owed months of lease payments, can be worked out.

The latest big step forward came Wednesday, back in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland, where a tentative agreement was reached between top bidder China Aviation General Aircraft Co. Ltd. and LT Builders LLC, a group of seven plane builders whose aircraft, in various stages, remains locked up at the big, idle factory by Bend Airport.

The deal, hammered out in around-the-clock negotiations, came just a day before a midnight Thursday deadline set by Bankruptcy Judge Randall Dunn. If it had not happened, the judge said the bankruptcy plane-maker’s assets would have gone to Kansas-based Harlow Aerostructures, the second-highest bidder, who also wanted to resume plane manufacturing in Bend. Read the rest of the article at KTVZ.com

The general aviation airport — home to three aircraft manufacturers and a number of aviation-related businesses — is currently considered “un-towered” airspace by the FAA.

read the full article at the Bend Bulletin here.

Bend officials are mulling the idea of annexing Bend Municipal Airport into the city limits — a move they say could boost economic development by giving the city more control over how the airport operates.

The airport, which sits on 415 acres about five miles northeast of Bend, is owned by the city but falls under Deschutes County jurisdiction. The city manages day-to-day airport operations, but when it wants to take out a noise permit, alter nearby streets or enforce code violations in hangars or other airport buildings, Bend has to turn to Deschutes County for permission.

Read the full story at the Bend Bulletin here.

If President Obama and Congress are serious about stimulating the economy, they might better consider why businesses use private aircraft before they vilify such expenditures.

For the aspiring entrepreneur, private aircraft are not luxuries that are to be indulged upon once success has been achieved, but rather necessary tools to support the drive toward success itself. No plane is cheap. However, what many businesses, a majority of Congress, and perhaps most Americans fail to grasp is the true cost of business travel by any other means.

A Hypothetical Example

I live in beautiful Bellingham, WA, a bastion of activist liberalism on par with Berkeley, CA and Boulder, CO. We’re “home to the longest-running weekly peace vigil in the nation.” Bellingham is sandwiched between four oil refineries and blessed with some of the highest prices at the gas pump in the state. 142 miles as the plane flies to the southwest is Hoquiam, WA, new home of one of the nation’s largest bio-diesel production facilities and former home of a vibrant timber industry prior to the Spotted Owl’s placement on the list of endangered species in 1990.

read the rest of the article at The American Thinker here.