January 21 Marks 10th Anniversary Of First Canadian-Built Customer Delivery

January 21, 2005 marks the 10th anniversary, to the day, of Diamond's first customer delivery of a Canadian-built aircraft. At that time, the Bombardier Rotax powered DA20-A1 �Katana�, N106CM -- well equipped with single Nav, 2 Coms, GPS, DME, and ADF! -- was delivered by Diamond's Jeff Owen to Dr. Tim Brady, then with Central State Missouri University, now Dean at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

Ten years later, the 806th DV/DA20, a DA20-C1 Eclipse, VH-ECD, much improved and now powered by a TCM IO-240, was delivered, again by Jeff Owen, to Mr. Malcolm Yeo of Edith Cowan University of Western Australia. "It doesn't seem that long ago," reminisced Peter Maurer, President of Diamond Aircraft and then QA and Certification Manager. "But comparing Diamond then and now, we look forward to the next ten years and where we will be on January 21st, 2015!"

"If Diamond had announced in 1995 that over the next ten years the company would build two-seaters, four-seaters, twins, start development of a single engine personal minijet, introduce turbo-diesel piston engines, supply the US Air Force Academy with their trainers, export to China, and offer fully integrated glass cockpits in single engine piston aircraft, I think we would have been considered nuts!" added Maurer. "Without the vision of Christian Dries, our CEO, and the much appreciated support of our customers, distributors, suppliers and employees, this would not have been possible.�

Diamond's 280 employees at its 220,000 square foot plant in London, Ontario currently produce the Lycoming powered DA40-180 Diamond Star four-seater and the TCM powered DA20-C1 two-seater.

FMI: www.diamondair.com