Epic Air stays in Bend
Former customers of kit airplane maker gain control of company, vow to keep building here
By Nick Budnick / The Bulletin
Last modified: April 08. 2010 6:25AM PST
PORTLAND — Bankrupt Bend aircraft maker Epic Air will fly again — or at least the vestiges of the company will, under new ownership.
A group of former customers of the kit airplane maker, located at Bend Municipal Airport, emerged from a bankruptcy hearing Tuesday with control of the company after initially being ranked third of three suitors. Following the hearing, its leaders vowed to continue building airplanes in Bend .
“We did it,” said Daryl Ingalsbe, flashing a grin and a thumbs-up.
Ingalsbe and Doug King had joined with other former customers in an effort to keep the company building its “Epic LT” kit model in Bend , only to be outbid by a Kansas firm as well as a Chinese government-owned company, both of which initially proposed to move Epic's assets with them. Last week, however, federal bankruptcy judge Randall Dunn required that the highest bidder, a Beijing subsidiary of Aviation Industry Corp. of China , cut a deal with the customers' group, called LT Builders Group.
The LT uses super-light composite materials, cruises at more than 400 mph and sells for nearly $2 million — about half of what an equivalent factory-built aircraft costs.
LT Builders had expected to license the LT's composite fiber technology from the Chinese, but in negotiations were able to persuade the Chinese to instead grant the American firm the intellectual property and physical assets. Under the final deal, the Chinese will license the technology from LT Builders Group, Ingalsbe said.
Gary Firestone, an assistant city attorney who has represented Bend in the proceedings, said the new deal was even better news for the city.
“I think it's really good that essentially control over the intellectual property remains here, that the physical assets remain here,” he said.
The new deal gives more control to the domestic firm, making it less dependent on the goodwill of the Chinese firm, and “that's why i think it's good news,” Firestone said.
Under the arrangement, LT Builders Group will market the Epic LT kit in North America , while the Chinese can market it elsewhere. The kit-built planes are called “experimental,” since they have not yet been certified by the government as airworthy. LT Builders and the Chinese would both be able to sell the plane anywhere if it is eventually certified, a designation that could lead to a significant increase in the Bend plant.
Ingalsbe, who has vowed to support the new Bend company with his own Omaha , Neb. , firm, Independent Technologies, said there is one hangup: a dispute with the firm's landlord, a limited liability company known as ER1 LLC. The company includes the former CEO of Epic, Rick Schramek.
Ingalsbe's partner in LT Builders, Doug King, said the number of people who can be hired in part depends on what rent ER1 agrees to. So far, he said, ER1 has been unreasonable and is “holding Bend hostage.”
The lawyer for ER1, Las Vegas attorney Thomas Fell, disagreed, saying it was the LT Builders who appeared to be driving a hard bargain. Still, he said negotiations had resumed after the hearing, at which the judge encouraged Ingalsbe and King to keep trying.
“We are not looking to profit off of anybody at this point,” Fell said, adding that the firm was trying to cover its mortgage, insurance and related costs. “Our goal is to have a tenant operating in that building, as the city of Bend wants and desires, and obviously to provide the employment and the tax base that most communities are in desperate need for right now.”
He expressed hope the two will reach a deal today on rent.
Officially known as Aircraft Investor Resources, Epic started in Bend in 2004 with the help of state loans and grants totaling $1.3 million, building a $4.5 million plant on the east side of the airport. It vowed to create 400 jobs.
Before layoffs last year, the firm employed about 150 people.
Epic filed for bankruptcy last September after a breach of contract lawsuit was filed against it.
The only other airplane maker at the Bend Airport, Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Corp., filed for bankruptcy in September 2007. Cessna Aircraft Co. bought Columbia but shut down its Bend facility last year.
Contacted by telephone, Schramek, the former Epic CEO, declined to comment.
Nick Budnick can be reached at 503-566-2839 or at
nbudnick@bendbulletin.com.
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