Cirrus founder Klapmeier lands at a new aviation firm in Maine

Alan Klapmeier is back in the airplane business.

Klapmeier, founder of Duluth-based Cirrus Aircraft, left the company's board in 2009 after 25 years as CEO.

The driver behind the super-efficient, single-engine Cirrus SR-20 and SR-22 aircraft that took the moribund general aviation industry by storm is the new boss at newly christened Kestrel Aircraft Co.

Once known as Farnborough Aircraft, Kestrel this week selected the soon-to-be decommissioned Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine as home to its next-generation Kestrel turboprop aircraft. Like the Cirrus line, the Kestrel plane will feature composite construction and a digital, next-generation cockpit.

In an interview Friday, Klapmeier said the Kestrel, of which only one prototype exists, will compete with more expensive jet aircraft.

"We will carry six to eight people," Klapmeier said. "It will travel a [yet-unspecified] further distance than a lot of airplanes in its price range of $2.5 million to $3 million. It will be a larger cabin with a larger payload, similar to a business jet. But one single turboprop engine vs. two jet engines [will make it] a lot less expensive to buy, operate and maintain."

The Kestrel will require a $100 million investment and 300 good-paying jobs once the company is in full production, Klapmeier said.

"The decision of Kestrel Aircraft to locate their base of operations at 'Brunswick Landing' is a testament to the diversely talented and sophisticated workforce here in Maine," said Gov. John Baldacci. "The international appeal and worldwide demand we foresee for the Kestrel airplane will benefit jobs throughout the state, boost Maine's economic competitiveness and showcase Maine's world-class innovation economy."

Kestrel's development, certification and initial production are scheduled to begin this fall.

Minnesota was not one of the states in competition for the Kestrel base.

Quiet departure

Klapmeier, 52, quietly left the Cirrus board last year after he was replaced as CEO in 2008. He and another director, Ed Underwood, resigned after the two were rebuffed in an attempt to buy the jet aircraft business that Klapmeier championed at Cirrus and which Cirrus is preparing to bring to market.

Underwood led the investment team nearly a decade ago that bought a majority stake in Cirrus by Arcapita, the private equity group formerly known as Crescent Capital, which is based in Bahrain.

Last month, Cirrus said it expects to bring its first jet, the Vision SF 50, to market by 2013. The prototype is being flown in tests.

430 down payments

About 430 customers already have put down $100,000 each for the jet, partly funding the $60 million Cirrus has spent developing the new product, CEO Bret Wouters said in June. The company expects to spend an additional $80 million developing the plane's design and interior and establishing a production line.

At its peak in 2007, Cirrus employed about 1,350 people in Duluth and Grand Forks, N.D. That number slipped to fewer than 700 amid a decline in plane orders in 2008-09 that has started to rebound.