The Lancair Company got back into the business of delivering airplanes Friday as they handed over the keys to the first Columbia 300 since restarting their production line earlier this year.

Enrico Evers of Hanseatische Luftwerft GmbH (HLW), Lancair's dealer for Western Europe, was on hand to receive the aircraft on behalf of its new, Dutch owner. "We plan to make this a habit," said Lancair President Bing Lantis. "We're nearly fully staffed again and have been ramping up our production line as rapidly as possible to deliver airplanes at an ever increasing rate on into the future."

Friday's aircraft is the second Lancair Columbia 300 the company has delivered to Europe (not counting The New Spirit of St. Louis, which Eric Lindberg flew non-stop from New York to Paris last spring). From Lancair's Bend (OR) headquarters, the aircraft will be flown to the East Coast where Trans-Atlantic crossing specialist Margrit Waltz will take the controls and ferry it the rest of the way to Europe.

The delivery coincided with The Lancair Company's second annual international Sales and Service Center meeting held this week.  Representatives of Lancair's ten domestic and three international sales and service organizations joined the audience of jubilant Lancair employees for the hand-over ceremony on a beautiful day in Central Oregon's high desert.

FMI: www.lancair.com