Leslie reveals US joint venture for Flightship

Flightship Australia managing director John Leslie tells The Motor Ship the joint venture arrangement with a US shipbuilder is likely to be finalised after Germanischer Lloyd completes the classification process for FS8 in late November. He envisages the US yard will initially produce around 25 of the craft annually, before progressing into production of the 40-seater FS 40. Flightship Australia will manufacture some of the aerodynamic surfaces at its Cairns factory and will provide skills and technology transfer to the Sand Diego yard, which will build the majority of the craft. “I?m not exactly sure on the finer details of this just yet, but the industry gossip is that they would like to build 80% of the craft,” says Leslie. When Leslie spoke to The Motor Ship in late November he was close to finalising a A$6 million ($3.1 million) sale for four FS8 craft to a tourist operator in the Maldives. These vessels are scheduled for a September 2002 delivery, however he believes there will be earlier deliveries of vessels to other buyers who are currently negotiating with Flightship. “We now have a strong flow of customers coming in for demonstrations and they are from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Spain.” Sea trials for FS8 have progressed extremely well, with the vessel exceeding its authorised capabilities in many areas, says Leslie. He says the craft is authorised to operate in 2m seas, but has shown excellent performance in 3m seas. FS8 also lands safely in 2m seas whereas she is authorised to land on a wave height of 0.5m “This craft can take off in seas of 1.9 m which is considerably higher than the 0.5m she is authorised to do. We?re continually finding out just how far the envelope is for this technnology.” Flightship now employs 25 people at its Cairns manufacturing factory and this is expected to rise to 50 people when sales contracts are signed.