This past weekend COPA and Cirrus Aircraft welcomed our owners back to Duluth for the seventh edition of the annual "Migration". More than 100 Cirrus aircraft and over 300 registered attendees made the return trip. As seems to be the case every year, this year's event eclipsed expectations in terms of attendance, the number and quality of forum presentations and excitement. The kick-off party, sponsored by Garmin and Cirrus Aircraft, was highlighted by a Vision Jet fly-by that set the tone for the whole weekend.
In addition to all the information coming out of the forums and trade show presentations, Cirrus also held a meeting of Vision Jet Deposit Holders to bring future clients up to speed on all development activities. Cirrus continues to make significant progress on the program. We have basically completed flight testing of the prototype, largely defined the loft for both the wing and the fuselage which determines the final shape of those items, and begun the detailed design phase which will take the next 18-21 months.
The Vision Jet program remains a key strategic initiative for Cirrus and is the central component of the Company's long-term growth strategy. Cirrus is devoting the vast majority of its product development resources to complete this program in a timely fashion. While the program is currently funded through internally-generated cash flows, we continue to look outside Cirrus for investments that might help accelerate the product to market.
Brent Wouters, Cirrus Aircraft President and CEO commented "Recently, Alan Klapmeier approached Cirrus about putting together a group of investors to potentially acquire a major interest in the Vision program, under his leadership, and Cirrus has agreed to cooperate with Alan as he investigates this possibility. The Company has several such potential avenues for external capital to fund the program at a faster rate, and some of the interested parties have submitted proposals to Cirrus for consideration. While Alan publicly announced his intentions, we would note that at this juncture there has been no formal proposal, no specific offer and we are not currently involved in negotiations toward such a deal."
Wouters concluded, "While the Vision program justifiably gets a lot of media attention, it is important to see its development in the context of the entire company's recent progress. We just announced increased piston production to eight (8) aircraft per week as we see signals of stronger demand both domestically and internationally. That combined with some of the organizational decisions we made last year to better position the company to prosper in more challenging economic times have us very encouraged as we look ahead to the second half of the year."
