It's flying now.
Work continues on flight-testing the completed Hawks, and construction of the remaining pre-production Hawks. You can see them flying in Arizona if you want to go. Before FAA certifies them, Groen has to produce voluminous test results, targeted at individual parts or components, plus voluminous reports on the overall bird. Groen also has to certify speed and handling under various conditions and at various altitudes, etc. Can the bird fly in the rain? Is it IFR or VFR? Can it handle below 32 degree weather (Or will it be a Challenger Space Shuttle)? It isn't hard work, but it must be thorough. If they find that something that doesn't work properly, they call in all the boys to hash it out, and that could take some re-design or changes in the bird. But Groen was smart in trying to use as many existing parts as possible from already FAA-certified suppliers. These parts don't have to be tested as thoroughly. If Groen uses a new gizmo from a new company, then Groen has to run even more thorough tests on large samples of these gizmos. Given all of this, I'm not surprised that the target date has slipped into early 2001. You're looking at holding a year and half to get a minimum 10 bagger if the Hawk is certified. But there could be even more delays. During this time, there will likely be some interim test reports, and more dealers signed up, so there will be some small bubbles to sell into. But, GNBA will not be a very attractive day trade for quite a while. Still, I'll be adding more on any dips. |
