Flight International - November 10, 2015

ightglobal.com 10-16 November 2015 | Flight International | 47

BUSINESS AVIATION

SABRELINER

Sabreliner

extend beyond revitalising Sabreliner’s com-
mercial aviation-services business, which
was abandoned with the sale of MidCoast
Aviation to Jet. It also wants Sabreliner to re-
claim its original purpose as an aircraft manu-
facturer – or, at least, a remanufacturer. It has
targeted several aircraft types as remanufac-
turing candidates, including in-production
and out-of-production models. Announce-
ments are expected as soon as the NBAA con-
vention later this month.
In the longer-term, Sabreliner’s association
with Innovative Capital raises even more in-
triguing possibilities. Business records online
suggest Innovative Capital has acquired New
Zealand-based Composite Helicopters. The
renamed Inova Composite Helicopters is at-
tempting to transfer composite structure tech-
nology to helicopters from New Zealand’s
competitive sailing industry. The result is a
programme to certificate two light single-en-
gined helicopters with composite semi-mono-
coque construction – the KC-630 and KC-640.
Sabreliner may prove an attractive site to
establish a US manufacturing base for such
turbine-powered helicopters. In addition to
servicing fixed-wing jets, Sabreliner provides
a similar line of offerings for military helicop-

ters. On a recent visit, for example, one hangar

was occupied by a Mexican navy Airbus Heli-

copters H225M, receiving an auxiliary power

unit upgrade, and a Jordanian Sikorsky

UH-60 Black Hawk undergoing a conversion

to a VIP interior.

The helicopter hangar in Perryville reflects

the revitalisation of the site under its new

ownership. The decades-old structure has

been extensively refurbished into a contem-

porary aerospace manufacturing facility, with

LED lighting and clear, bright colours on the

floors and walls.

Local operations resumed in Perryville in

February 2014 with a new leadership team

and a new strategy no longer burdened by the

now-expired non-compete agreement. It was

again free to pursue a balanced business port-

folio of commercial and military work.

Rebalancing the portfolio with a strong

commercial services business is a top priority,

says Sabreliner president Greg Fedele.

NEW DEALS

“The military and the commercial stuff in

aerospace really do complement each other.

When one’s up, the other’s down. That’s usu-

ally what we see in aerospace. When you only

have one side of that equation and that equa-

tion starts going down and you don’t have

anything to backfill, that’s an uphill climb,”

he says. “Our plan is to try to stay more bal-

anced in the military and commercial world.”

Non-Sabreliner types are beginning to re-

turn to Perryville for a variety of jobs. Sabre-

liner, in fact, is negotiating a new partner-

ship with Dassault Falcon, with the goal to

offer parts services outside the network of

authorised service centres. “That’s more our

core business,” Fedele says. “If you look at

our strategy, we are growing our core busi-

ness, what we have here today.”

The rural Perryville site appears to be an

unlikely location for a full-service aircraft

manufacturer, but those capabilities still re-

side inside Sabreliner’s hangars, which in-

clude shops for paint, upholstery, avionics,

engines and composite structures.

“We have a broader capability than most,”

Fedele says. “We only do everything. You

name something on an airplane we can do it.

It’s crazy when you walk through here and

you see everything they had, and it’s laid out

perfectly from when they used to do the fin-

ishing work for the Sabreliners.”

But the re-emerging company still com-

mands a significant military business.

Through it no longer supports the US Air

Force C-21s, it remains a specialist on devel-

oping analytical data on the service’s ageing

aircraft fleets. In late September, the Air Force

Academy awarded Sabreliner a contract

worth up to $100 million over the next five

years under the Center for Aircraft Structural

Life Extension (CASTLE) programme.

The contract has Sabreliner receiving Boe-

ing KC-135s that have been retired, cut-up and

delivered on pallets. Workers at the company’s

site in nearby St Genevieve, Missouri, disman-

tle each piece of the remaining structure, down

to bolts and rivets. These pieces are sent to the

Air Force Academy for laboratory analysis,

helping the CASTLE staff determine the ageing

issues the USAF can expect to appear next.

All the activity around the company has

raised questions about its branding. For some,

its name implies a focus on the dwindling

fleet of Sabreliner jets, or its T-39 predecessor

as a military trainer. The company still pro-

vides such services, but it is a diminishing

minority of business activity.

“People say, ‘I didn’t know you did that’.

We hear it all the time,” Fedele says, “be-

cause we couldn’t compete [until 2011, due

to the Jet Aviation agreement] and we have a

pretty robust portfolio. It’s just getting the

word out there.” ■

“If you look at our strategy, we

are growing our core business,

what we have here today”

GREG FEDELE

President, Sabreliner

Sabreliner

The paint shop is just one capability left over from the days of Sabreliner final assembly