BRS To Supply OMF Aircraft With Factory-Installed Chutes…
OMF Aircraft says it will offer Ballistic Recovery Systems Inc. (BRS) whole-aircraft emergency parachute systems as a factory-installed option on the two-place Symphony 160 and the diesel Symphony 135-TDI, and as standard equipment on the four-place Symphony 4 now in development. BRS announced it expects to have the necessary Supplemental Type Certificate to offer the chutes on the two-place aircraft for first customer deliveries as soon as December. Certification of the Symphony 4, including the BRS parachute system as a standard equipment, is expected by OMF near the end of 2004 or early 2005. OMF is concurrently developing a diesel version of their two-place aircraft and will offer a BRS parachute system as an option on that model as well. BRS conducted a drop test on the Symphony 160 to simulate the impact a high-flying, fully loaded aircraft would experience, and the aircraft passed with flying colors, OMF said in a news release. Shares of BRS jumped 27 percent on the news, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal. OMF, based in Germany, is building a new manufacturing facility in Canada, which will have the capacity to build about 100 airplanes a year. BRS said the two companies have agreed in principle on the project, but negotiation and execution of formal documentation is still pending.
