Posted: April 7, 2010 11:19 PM

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