Fairchild (aircraft manufacturer)
Fairchild in San Antonio , Texas , was an originally American aircraft manufacturer .
The article deals with the branch of the company in 1927 under the name to Fairchild Aircraft Manufacturing Company from Fairchild Group (Holding) split off and ultimately with several name changes through the acquisition of Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH by Daimler-Benz with Fairchild Dornier to firmierte, 1999 a German banking and corporate consortium was sold and, due to the aviation crisis triggered after September 11, 2001 , went bankrupt and was liquidated.
history
In 1925 Sherman Fairchild , the company Fairchild Aviation Corporation , based in Farmingdale in the state of New York . In the course of time, a large number (over a hundred) of individual branches and subsidiaries with their own business content and changing owners were formed, which today still exist independently or in groups with other products under the name of Fairchild, such as B. Fairchild Corporation or Fairchild Semiconductor . Among them was the Fairchild Aircraft Manufacturing Company , which was subordinated to the holding company in 1927 and from then on devoted itself to aircraft construction and development. The manufacturer's first series-produced aircraft model was the Fairchild FC-2 , which was produced from 1927 . Before and during World War II, the company developed and built a number of training and transport aircraft, including a. also with a subsidiary in Canada.
After the war, the Fairchild C-119 "Flying Boxcar" was developed from the Fairchild C-82 aircraft ; Over 1,100 of them were built, some of which are still used today as water bombers in forest fires. The company built 206 Fokker F-27s under license and also Hiller FH 1100 helicopters . The company was renamed Fairchild Hiller.
After Hiller bought back the helicopter production in 1973, the company called itself Fairchild Industries , but had already acquired the Republic Aviation Company in 1965 and had a great success with the A-10 Thunderbolt II .
Before the company became Fairchild Dornier, it had bought Swearingen Aircraft in 1972 , and built and sold the Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner Metro and Merlin in San Antonio , over 1000 of which were built and which for years were the standard aircraft for regional and feeder air traffic .
Both the C-82 and the C-119 were used in the films "The Flight of the Phoenix" ( 1965 and 2004 ).
Fairchild Dornier
In 1996, Daimler-Benz saw the market-experienced partner for the Dornier 328 as part of its return to car manufacturing and the transfer of Dornier GmbH to DASA in Fairchild Industries . Fairchild took over 80% of Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH . Daimler-Benz retained a 20% stake as a shareholder through Dornier GmbH. The company renamed itself to Fairchild Dornier with headquarters in San Antonio, Texas (USA), produced the Dornier 328 in Oberpfaffenhofen and developed the 328 Jet. It operated the business of the former Dornier Reparatur Werft DRW, u. a. also took care of the UH-1D for the German Armed Forces, and had the Indian-made Dornier Do 228 in the sales program.
The support for the many (over 750 pieces) Metro and Merlin prototypes was located in San Antonio.
sale
In 1999 the company was sold to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the Allianz subsidiary Capital Partners and a German banking consortium without changing its name . Daimler-Benz and Dornier retired as partners. The corporate / banking consortium was pursuing the 528, 728, and 928 programs at the time, and the 728 program began building three prototypes.
As a result of the aviation crisis caused by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , Fairchild Dornier had to file for bankruptcy in 2002 because the orders and options for the 728 development program collapsed - Lufthansa withdrew its 60 options - and sales stagnated. More than 3 billion euros in development costs had accumulated. Since no buyer could be found, the company was liquidated and the profitable parts were sold individually, with only UH-1D support, Challenger CL-601 maintenance and Airbus component production being continued by RUAG . The 328 and 728 programs still found buyers, but were later completely discontinued.
The activities in San Antonio were taken over by the company M7 Aerospace , which in turn was merged in 2010 in the Israeli Elbit Systems group .
The aviation division of the former Fairchild Group and the Dornier Group no longer exist.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fairchild Semiconductor website. Retrieved July 25, 2010 .
- ^ San Antonio Business Journal: M7 Aerospace sold to Israeli defense firm