Van's Aircraft Update - May 11, 2024 

Glad you're enjoying it - Just wait until you fly it!! :)

We will update you with any new info whenever it becomes available.

The project is ongoing.

⁠your kidneys are safe. For now.

Haha. Cause rotax is a significantly larger company with deep pockets. Lycoming I imagine is very profitable - if you can’t be profitable with a several year waitlist…. Partial takeback. Textron appears to own lycoming. And they are bigger than Bombadier. I’d guess BRP makes more engines annually in total (not sure what percent are aviation engines)….

125+ year old boat anchor. Thank you Karl Benz!

Love the rotax engine. I only look at new aircraft that have rotax option.

Actually, we've never manufactured just in time, in the literal sense. The large backlog of production work has been a challenge for a few years and we are catching up, which means shorter lead times. Our production batches are intended to help ensure we can have kits ready to go for customers without building up a large inventory that sits. Mostly it's about ensuring the inventory is properly balanced and therefore ready to be packed and shipped. Good progress on that front.

Very strange hand held device with buttons on it. Can't figure it out...

Probably a remote so he can control a PowerPoint presentation that he's reading a script from

@@Jackhammer909 Yup. Speed up and slow down the speed of the text prompts.

They ran out of money. Every company that goes into chapter 11 short changes creditors for a time. Hopefully things will go back to normal and vendors will be back to getting paid in full. Would you have preferred that they paid off more to their vendors (but certainly not all) and went bankrupt and then their vendors would have lost all future business? Or are you just angry that the money fairies didn’t descend from heaven and pay everyone with magic dust?

They can still recover from bankruptcy without not paying their vendors. Those vendors worked hard making parts in good faith. How you you like it if you got paid half for months of work already produced. They will not receive full payment on services rendered. It’s not the vendor’s fault of Van’s poor management.

@@johnwalters878 no I wouldn't like it and yes they delivered in good faith and no it's not their fault it is Vans' bad management and some poor engineering decisions. But vendors getting temporarily stiffed is the lessor of 2 evils. If they don't manage their finances and get back on a stable footing and continue on a very disciplined path they will fail - this has already been proven . It's only by cutting staff and getting a lifeline from Van himself and chapter 11 protection that they survived. It's ugly, no doubt. But the important thing is that they survive and this is in the vendor's interest too. I'm not sure why you think they can pay everyone off if they just came within a hair of failing. Usually when companies file for chapter 11 it is the end, so we should be glad that they are continuing and will hopefully be able to put this behind them as will the vendors, who will be able to continue doing business. I suspect without Vans some these vendors would shut down permanently as well.