Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein
| Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein AG (FFA) | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1949 |
| resolution | 1987 |
| Reason for dissolution | Gradual sale and disassembly |
| Seat | Village Altenrhein in the municipality of Thal SG in the canton of St. Gallen , Switzerland |
| Branch | Manufacturers of aircraft , rail vehicles and boats |
The flight and Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein AG ( FFA ) was a Swiss manufacturer of airplanes , trains and boats based in the town of Altenrhein in the town of Thal SG in the canton of St. Gallen .
The company was gradually sold and dismantled from 1987. Since then there have been a number of successor companies that can be traced back to FFA, including Gautschi AG (aircraft construction supplier and owner of the trademark rights), the Pilatus Aircraft subsidiary Altenrhein Aviation AG (aircraft maintenance), Stadler Altenrhein AG (wagon construction) and the Schindler Technik AG . The St. Gallen-Altenrhein airfield , where the former FFA company premises are located, which is now known as the Altenrhein Industrial Park , is also closely connected to the FFA .
history
The flight and Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein go to the Dornier works Altenrhein back AG, which in 1924 by Claude Dornier were established after Germany in the Treaty of Versailles was prohibited the aircraft. The Swiss Air Force and the Ad Astra Aero , a predecessor of what would later become Swissair, showed particular interest in aircraft construction in Switzerland .
In order for the Dornier-Werke aircraft to take off, an airfield with a 600-meter-long grass runway was created in Altenrhein, on which flight operations began in 1927 and from which the St. Gallen-Altenrhein airfield emerged over the course of time .
Even before the Second World War , the plant received federal orders to build Swiss military aircraft under license. After the war, the company dealt independently with concepts for jet aircraft, whereby, due to the lack of high-thrust engines, the company decided on twin-engine designs. The Emmen aircraft factory had transferred the projects N-10 and N-11, but these projects for a single-engine aircraft , called P-12 and P-13 at FFA , were paused from 1947 to 1949.
Gradually, the company was withdrawn from German control and transferred to Swiss hands. In 1948 Claudio Caroni was entrusted with the management of the company, which in 1949 changed its name to Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein AG (FFA) and also started to manufacture wagons . Claudio Caroni bought the company completely in 1952, which changed it into family ownership.
For the Swiss Air Force, the FFA developed and built two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft of the type FFA P-16 from 1950 after the development of the twin-engine designs P-23/25 and P-26 had been definitively discontinued due to the powerful engines now available abroad . In March 1958, Switzerland ordered 100 of these aircraft; However, as shortly after the order was placed, the pre-production aircraft J-3003 crashed into Lake Constance due to a defect , the order was canceled in June. From 1960 onwards, the P-16 was used to develop a business jet with the designation SAAC-23 , this as a joint project between FFA and William P. Lear under the designation "Swiss American Aviation Corporation (SAAC)". The aircraft was based on the wing of the P-16 and ultimately ended up in the US-made Learjet 23 . It was only with the training aircraft AS-202 Bravo in 1972 that success outside of licensed constructions was achieved.
An important pillar of the company made the wagon, where in addition to the car for the standard gauge railways also those for narrow-gauge railways (especially the standard wagon for the Rhaetian Railway ) and tram networks (for example, many followers after the model of Swiss standard car ) took an important place. Special mention should be made of the BDeh 1/2 railcar of the nearby Rheineck – Walzenhausen mountain railway , the body of which comes from the FFA. It completed its maiden voyage in 1958 and is still in operation (as of Nov. 2013). The railcar is currently being overhauled and should continue to serve for at least another 10 years. The unique railcar of the narrow-gauge rack-and-pinion railway (gauge 1200 mm) has already covered more than 1,000,000 km. and has been faithfully restored several times. The company also manufactured bodies for trolley buses , for example for the networks in Lucerne and Zurich .
However, in wagon construction in Switzerland, there was constant competition from the Swiss Wagons and Elevator Factory Schlieren (SWS), the Swiss Industrial Society (SIG) and Schindler-Waggon Pratteln (SWP). Even a standstill agreement concluded by the Swiss rolling stock industry in the 1980s could not secure the company's continued existence.
Restructuring, outsourcing and sales
Luciano Caroni sold the company to Schindler Holding in 1987 . This kept the wagon construction and a considerable part of the company premises and formed its second wagon construction subsidiary, the Schindler Waggon Altenrhein (SWA) . The Altenrhein plant has been part of Stadler Rail since 1997 . Schindler sold the aircraft works and the FFA naming rights to Justus Dornier Holding in Zurich .
The aircraft division was renamed FFA Flugzeugwerke Altenrhein AG and was only active as a supplier in aircraft construction and as an aircraft maintenance company. The company was further divided, in 2000 the maintenance area was outsourced to FFA Aircraft Maintenance AG , which was finally taken over by the Pilatus Group in 2002 . The maintenance area was integrated into the Pilatus subsidiary Altenrhein Aviation AG in 2003 and FFA Aircraft Maintenance AG was converted into the Flughafengesellschaft Airport Altenrhein AG and sold.
With the resolution of the General Assembly of June 2002, the merger of FFA Flugzeugwerke Altenrhein AG with Gautschi AG was decided. Gautschi AG, as the owner of the trademark rights, has since been active in the supply business under the brand name FFA. Among other things, components for the F / A-18 fighter-bomber , the Airbus A320 family and the Airbus A330 / A340 family are manufactured. The «FFA» also maintains and delivers parts for the FFA AS-202 Bravo .
Altenrhein industrial park
In the 1990s, Schindler showed overcapacity in wagon construction, which came under increasing pressure from foreign competition and suffered from an inconsistent order intake from regular Swiss customers. Despite multiple internal restructuring of Schindler Waggon, the concentration on Pratteln as the main operation (development, construction) and Altenrhein as the subordinate location (maintenance, component production), the division slipped into the red.
In 1996, Schindler Holding decided to sell its subsidiary Schindler Waggon. The choice fell on the actual consortium partner ABB , with whom countless rail vehicles had been developed. ABB Verkehrstechnik had merged with Daimler-Benz to form Adtranz at the beginning of 1996 and was interested in taking over the Pratteln site. Another solution was found for the Altenrhein site: the wagon construction area was taken over in 1997 by Stadler Fahrzeug AG , which was converted into a holding company and took over parts of the Schindler plant as Stadler Rail Altenrhein AG . Schindler Technik AG was founded as a rescue company for the remaining parts of the factory and also took over the site management.
Since Stadler did not need the entire plant when taking over, the “surplus” supplier areas and component production were continued by Schindler Technik and sold to various investors by the end of 2000. As a result, over a dozen companies settled on the former factory site, which until the end of 2004 belonged to the Schindler real estate subsidiary Orgama AG . On January 1, 2005, Schindler finally sold the Altenrhein industrial park to the German TMW Pramerica Property Investment GmbH and dissolved Orgama AG - the industrial park, however, continues to be managed by Schindler Technik (Pratteln), which also owns the now closed former Schindler- Plant supervised.
Web links
- Peter Hug: Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein (FFA). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Altenrhein industrial park
- Gautschi AG - FFA
- bahnarchiv.ch - image database with partial FFA photo archive
credentials
- ^ Peter Hug: Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein (FFA). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . December 8, 2005 , accessed June 12, 2019 .
- ^ John Fricker: Switzerland's P-16 - Father of the Learjet. AIR International, March 1991, pp. 139-146.
- ↑ The Lear Jet 23/24/25/28/29 ( airliners.net ; English)
- ^ Bähnli is driven for revision ( Memento from December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Der Rheintaler from November 7, 2013, accessed on November 19, 2013
- ↑ The Bergbahn's railcar is a “millionaire” ( memento from March 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Der Rheintaler, September 24, 1999
- ↑ Sandro Flückiger, Roman Zai: 1941–2016: 75 years of trolleybuses in Lucerne , vbl-historic 2016, p. 15f