CTLS light sport aircraft by Flight Design

Flight Design — originator of the market-leading CT-series of LSA — has completed a court-appointed reorganization. Many of the former company team members will take certain assets and move forward. I will have more on that in a future article.

After the transaction is fully completed AeroJones Aviation will own the CT line including the current CTLS and CTLSi. They will also pursue completion of Flight Design’s four seater, C4, that flew in 2015.

Introducing the new owner of America’s popular CTLS…

AeroJones Aviation is headquartered in Taichung, Taiwan, often referred to as the “Silicon Valley of Taiwan.” After first acquiring a license to build Flight Design aircraft more than two years ago, the company went through a thorough training and evaluation from Flight Design officials.
 
Aircraft production began for the Taiwanese company after they installed new production tooling and equipment including a five-axis CNC machine, water and Laser cutters, TIG welding, composite layup and post-cure ovens, plus a modern paint booth. 

Flight Design provided production worker training and quality management training. AeroJones finished their first airplanes in 2014 and has since been refining the production and quality systems. Proving their skills to government officials, AeroJones’ production facility passed numerous audits and earned a Production Certificate from China’s CAAC at the end of 2015.
 
Backing AeroJones is a parent company called GSEO (Genius Electro Optical), a manufacturer and supplier for industrial LED products and laminated lenses for many popular smartphones. GSEO has roughly 20,000 employees. Brand new production facilities were secured on mainland China, across the Taiwan Strait.
 

Initial CTLS and CTLSi supplied by AeroJones to American distributors and dealers won good marks. “The quality was very good,” said Tom Gutmann, the country’s largest Flight Design distributor, having delivered more than 100 aircraft. “AeroJones personnel spent several days with us and in great detail documented every minor issue we found in the first aircraft. We were impressed how carefully they listened.”
 
“AeroJones Aviation will be established in Florida as a centralized assembly and distribution facility for the AeroJones Aviation-produced CT series aircraft” said Chris Benaiges, CEO of AeroJones Americas. 

Chris has been associated with Flight Design and their CT series for several years; he and partners stepped in to restore the distribution of these aircraft after the court reorganization.
 
“AeroJones Aviation is pleased to bring renewed life to the very popular CTLS in America,” said Hsieh Chi-Tai, Executive Vice President at AeroJones. “We are pleased to work with our U.S. representatives at AeroJones Americas as we resume shipments of CTLS to America.”