AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL VIKING OWNERS & FRIENDS:
As everyone surely knows by now, the assets of Bellanca Inc. were recently purchased by a group of mostly former Bellanca employees and their new company is Alexandria Aircraft LLC. My wife and I were recently in Minnesota on vacation and we arranged a meeting to visit the factory and to meet with the new owners. Never having been to the factory, it was a real thrill for me, even if I was seeing it at its worst…or near worst (while there, we frequently heard “you should have seen the mess we had a few weeks ago!”) and although it was a mess, it wasn’t hard to envision what it must have been like in its heyday. And with a little luck it just may once again resemble those good old days.
Throughout their history Bellanca has been plagued with business woes and these recent years rank up there with the most troublesome. I for one had almost given up hope that anyone would ever come along and rescue this historic aircraft company. Most every owner agrees, this is the most wonderful flying machine ever built…so why can’t a company successfully market this product and make a reasonable profit doing so? Granted a Viking is not for every man, it is a niche market, but that niche certainly seems large enough to support itself in a profitable manner.
Alexandria Aircraft LLC has carefully assessed the previous practices, both good & bad, and believes they have come up with a formula to save the company and the plane. The outline of their plan has already been well publicized in magazines and your favorite websites, but briefly; it involves cost cutting measures in the manufacture of the many parts and sub-assemblies by using current day machine tools and techniques, using computers for parts inventory and control among other things (the very first computer ever was brought into the factory just last week!), making service kits readily available for the existing fleet for speed upgrades and often overlooked service bulletin issues, they also plan to offer refurbishment services for the existing fleet, and as profitability increases production and marketing of new Super Vikings will again take place…if all goes as planned, at a rate of 1 or 2 a month!
Let me tell you, this is a very enthusiastic and dedicated group, confident in the fact that they can make these goals a reality. Their initial goal is to address the parts issues with the existing fleet…availability & pricing. We, the existing owners, are their first priority! Is this a switch, or what? It is our commitment to buying factory parts that will be the foundation of the company’s growth and the basis for the stepping-stone approach towards profitability and once again building new aircraft. I urge every owner to “BUY FACTORY” in support of their efforts. No one wants an orphan airplane and without our help, that could be the end result. I was assured that parts pricing would be accountable, reality based and in-line with comparable aircraft. They are also committed to creating a web-based parts ordering system as their fledgling website
www.Bellanca-Aircraft.com
expands, bringing this wood winged wonder into the 21st century. No more jokes about Bellanca having a website the day someone invents a wooden modem!
As I write this Alexandria Aircraft is awaiting FAA approval to even start selling parts, so you may be wondering…what can we do now? They’ve asked that we contact them with our current parts needs via the email link on their website, so that when the approval comes down (which could be any day) they will be geared up to meet those needs. Although the parts bins looked quite full, obviously not everything is in stock and our input will help them come up to speed a bit quicker. It is a daunting task, especially for parts that are out sourced. Many suppliers require substantial lead times, not to mention minimum quantities, and these companies also change hands from time to time so just tracking them down can be quite a task. So any ‘heads-up’ of your parts needs will be helpful to them…email your wish list today! And when parts do become available, please show your support and…”BUY FACTORY”!!!
The individuals that make up Alexandria Aircraft share in our passion and love of the Viking. In my opinion, we owners couldn’t have asked for a better ownership group and we need to do our part to see that they succeed. Thanks for listening!
Regards to all & fly safely,
Tom Russ
N28054
vikingdrvr@att.net
www.BellancaViking.com
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