 Jan. 21/05 10 years after: 10 year anniversary of delivery of first Canadian-built Diamond January 21st, 2005 marks the 10th anniversary, to the day, of Diamond's first customer delivery of a Canadian built aircraft. At that time, the Bombardier Rotax powered DA20-A1 "Katana", N106CM (well equipped with single Nav, 2 Coms, GPS, DME, and ADF!) was delivered by Diamond's Jeff Owen to Dr. Tim Brady, then with Central Missouri State University, now Dean at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. 10 years later, the 806th DV/DA20, a DA20-C1 Eclipse, VH-ECD, much improved and now powered by a TCM IO240, was delivered, again by Jeff Owen, to Mr. Malcolm Yeo of Edith Cowan University of Western Australia. "It doesn't seem that long ago," reminisced Peter Maurer, President of Diamond Aircraft and then QA and Certification Manager. "But comparing Diamond then and now, we look forward to the next 10 years and where we will be on January 21st, 2015! If we had announced in 1995 that over the next 10 years we would build 2 seaters, 4 seaters, twins, start development of a single engine personal minijet, introduce turbo-diesel piston engines, supply the US Air Force Academy with their trainers, export to China, and offer fully integrated glass cockpits in single engine piston aircraft, I think we would have been considered nuts! Without the vision of Christian Dries, our CEO, and the much appreciated support of our customers, distributors, suppliers and employees, this would not have been possible." Diamond's 280 employees at its 220,000 square foot plant in London, Ontario currently produce the Lycoming powered DA40-180 Diamond Star 4 seater and the TCM powered DA20-C1 2 seater. For more information on Diamond’s complete line of aircraft, contact: North America: Phone 1-888-359-3220, e-mail: sales@diamondair.com, www.diamondair.com International: Michael Feinig, Managing Director, Phone: +43-2622-26 700, ext 190, e-mail: m.feinig@diamond-air.at, www.diamond-air.at For more information on Edith Cowan University, visit www.ecu.edu.au  |
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