Cobalt Aircraft Industries to Open U.S. Branch

Oshkosh, July 28, 2010 - Cobalt Aircraft Industries, French Headquartered aircraft designer of the Co50 and OEM, has decided to create a U.S. corporation for development, certification, and production of its aircraft.

The company unveiled its existence for the first time to the public, along with its first prototype of the Co50 high-performance canard pusher aircraft, at EAA AirVenture. David Loury, founder and CEO, said "We are pleased to announce the creation of our U.S. branch, based in San Francisco, CA. While a final assembly site is still under negotiation, the American activities of the company will be directed from these U.S. Headquarters. We felt that we needed a creative, stimulating environment, and to get closer to our customer base."

The U.S. branch will be a full duplicate of the French company based in Paris. Its activities will entail engineering, production & assembly, marketing & sales, and customer support for the American markets.

Cobalt wishes to tackle its FAR 23 certification program with the FAA before the end of the year, and flight testing is expected to commence at that time.

The press conference lasted 30 minutes and included a short presentation of the company, the Co50 prototype, plans for the future for both, and a question and answer session. Hartzell representatives Gary Chafin, Account Manager in OEM sales, and Mike Disbrow, Senior Vice President at Hartzell, joined the Cobalt team for the event.

Cobalt Aircraft Industries is an aircraft design company in the process of certifying its Co50 canard turbocharged pusher and is positioned to provide total OEM service from Aircraft On Ground (AOG) assistance to long-term study, manufacture, and certification of customization requests. For further information, visit Cobalt’s website www.cobalt-aircraft.com or contact Marcellette Cloche at +33 9 53 41 14 56 or [email protected].