On the Record with
BRIAN BARENTS, PRESIDENT AND CEO,
GALAXY AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

Galaxy president and CEO, Brian Barents

Galaxy will not be stopping with its present product line. According to Barents, "About five months ago we launched a very extensive market and customer research program to determine what our plans for the next decade will be. We are looking at everything from a new entry-level business jet to an SSBJ. Once the results have come back from our customers and we have analyzed them, I suspect we'll be looking to either side of our current range and to offer an enhanced Astra and an outgrowth of the Galaxy-the cross-section of the Galaxy is sufficiently wide enough to take a very nice stretch." Barents disclosed that Galaxy has given "serious thought" to a potential SSBJ, whose future would depend on "market size and the price elasticity." "I would say a potential SSBJ is going to cost between $65 million and $80 million," Barents predicted. "Unless we can overcome the present restrictions on supersonic overland travel, it will have to be an 'over water' aircraft only. In that case it's going to have to be a 5,500 nmi range aircraft to offer trans-Pacific capability. The technology is there. We can do it. But it's going to be a billion-dollar program, so you have to be assured that the demand is there to pay that back. We have not eliminated it from the equation." RH

Galaxy's Now Looking to a New Aircraft

With deliveries of the Galaxy midsize jet firmly underway and about to step up a gear, Brian Barents comes to NBAA at the helm of a product launch he describes as "almost flawless". Not only is the Galaxy winning positive customer approval, but also there has been a resurgence of interest in the smaller Astra SPX. Building on this success, Galaxy Aerospace is about to begin serious work on expanding its product line, and is even ready to join the quest for the supersonic business jet.

Barents explains, "We are continuing to introduce the Galaxy to the market at the rate of two per month. It has been extremely well received and we have a one-and-a-half year backlog. To a person, the operators have been saying that it is the quietest jet they have ever flown. The Galaxy is an extremely comfortable aircraft to fly in because of its wing loading, but the sound suppression package that we are supplying has met with universal approval." Based on initial figures, typical utilization about 700 hours per year, he said.

"We are meeting all our range and performance guarantees, though we have found that aircraft are coming out about 200 pounds heavier than we expected," Barents reported. "This is largely down to the interiors, and customers putting in a lot of extras that we didn't expect. When we first exhibited our cabin we configured it with eight-place double-club seating, but many of our customers are opting for a 10/11-seat layout, which is one reason that weight has built up. People have decided to take advantage of the cabin width and the three-abreast seating. The noise suppression system also contributes a little, but any operator will tell you that that's an easy trade-off to make."

At the launch of the new Embraer Legacy midsize business jet during this year's Farnborough International Air Show, Embraer president Mauricio Botelho referred to the Galaxy as his 'primary target'. But there is nothing either in the market, or on the horizon, that Barents sees as a threat, and he is cool about the claims of others.

"Some people have said that the Legacy is like a Galaxy only cheaper, but not at $19 million it isn't," he contends. "It might have greater cabin volume, but it will be much shorter on range and its long-range cruise speed is going to be very, very slow. They might pick up some sales as a corporate commuter or for domestic service in the U.S., but they have nothing on the Galaxy. If they'd come out at $15 million or $16 million then I might have been concerned, but by the time you outfit (a Legacy) is going to cost substantially more than we do.

The Astra SPX and the larger Galaxy jet are evidently not enough for Galaxy Aerospace

"As for the Continental and the Horizon, well I'm sure they'll be good aircraft. But we are first into the market. Bombardier usually do what they say in the end, but the (Raytheon) Horizon is already years behind us, so it's difficult to say. The Premier I is two years late already. The Horizon is projected to be at least two years late, and the company is up for sale, so there's a lot of uncertainty there."

Barents is also keen to underline the hidden success of the Astra. "Our greatest delight over the past year has been at how well the Astra is doing," he said. "It is without question the most perfect midsized business jet ever built, and the market is now beginning to understand that. I can see us increasing production again next year. We are building two Galaxies and one Astra a month right now. I know our year-to-date figures don't add up to that, but from September to the end of next January-the end of our financial year -we will deliver another 14 Galaxies and seven Astras."

By Rob Hewson