2 November 2016
The Found E-350 Expedition bushplane is to be manufactured by New Zealand’s Pacific Aerospace and its Chinese partner, Beijing Pan Pacific Aerospace Technology (BPAT). Production will start in Q2 2017.
The FAA and Transport Canada certified E-350 will be manufactured at Pacific Aerospace’s headquarters in Hamilton, New Zealand. The aircraft has five seats and is capable of short take-off and landings.
“The E-350 Expedition is a cross-country cruising aircraft, a rugged backcountry bush plane and a high-performance floatplane,” said Pacific Aerospace chief executive Damian Camp.
“The company has acquired the ownership and manufacturing rights of the E-350 Expedition from legendary Canadian company Found Aircraft, which had designed the aircraft to move people and equipment between lakes, glaciers and backcountry air strips.”
Pacific Aerospace’s joint venture BPAT recently opened an aircraft manufacturing plant in one of China’s top business cities, Changzhou. It plans to build Pacific Aerospace’s existing aircraft, P-750, used mostly for parachute drops, and also the E-350 in the future.
The E-350 Expedition bushplane will now be manufactured by New Zealand’s Pacific Aerospace.
The E-350 is powered by a 325hp Lycoming IO-580, with a turbo-charged engine option. It can carry a full load of passengers, baggage, and fuel for 750nm. Pacific Aerospace is optimistic about the E-350’s floatplane configuration in particular.
Mark Crouch, general manager of global markets, said, “The addition of the E-350, including the floatplane and amphibian option, really opens new doors for us in regards to overseas relationships and sales opportunities.
“The float plane market in particular is a very large but mostly unseen market with a large number of very old aircraft coming to the end of their productive lives. The E-350 is ideally placed to offer customers a chance to move up to a modern, state-of-the-art higher performance aircraft that will do all their old aircraft did, and more.”
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