Israel Aircraft Industries is injecting cash and resources into the Aviation Technology Group (ATG) Javelin two-seat light jet project, and will modify, market and produce the airplane for military training applications, it was announced here today. IAI president and CEO Moshe Keret and ATG CEO George Bye declined to put a number on IAI's new equity stake in ATG, but Bye defined it as a "generous" minority share. IAI is also assigning its engineers to help ATG certificate the Javelin.
Bye also said here that ATG has re-opened the choice of an engine for the Javelin. The first non-conforming prototypes have the Williams FJ33-4. Bye says that "our good friends at Williams have done a fine job of supporting us and we look forward to continuing that relationship, but the production decision has not been finalized." ATG does not plan to fly a conforming prototype until the second quarter of 2006, and it will differ significantly from the first airplane, due to fly at the end of the year. Production aircraft will be primarily aluminum, for example, while the prototype is composite.
IAI sees the Javelin as offering advanced-trainer performance—high Mach and climb rates—for a comparable price to turboprop trainers. (The civil version costs $2.5 million.) Keret sees a strong market in Asia, and IAI is likely to offer the aircraft to the Israeli Air Force as a replacement for its early-1960s IAI Tsukit, developed by IAI from the Fouga Magister. However, Keret stresses that IAI's priority is to get the civil version certificated before launching an international military sales campaign.
