SABRELINER COMPLETES SALE TO NAVY

PERRYVILLE -- Sabreliner Corp. has completed a $42.5 million sale of aircraft training equipment to the Navy.

Included in the purchase are 17 T-39N aircraft and associated simulators equipped to conduct the Navy's Undergraduate Naval Flight Officers (UNFO) training program at Pensacola, Fla.

Part of the agreement will result in Sabreliner performing pre-delivery-condition inspections on the T-39Ns.

"Condition inspections will take place over the next year in Perryville," said Ron Herman, plant manager. "We will be adding 35 to 40 people for that purpose."

Sabreliner currently employs 213 persons at the Perryville plant.

Day-to-day maintenance will be performed at the Naval base at Pensacola and heavy maintenance will continue at Perryville. Sabreliner has an engine test cell at the Perryville plant that can test engine performance on a wide variety of turboshaft, turboprop and turbojet engines.

The Navy has been using the T-39Ns for its UNFO training program at Pensacola since 1991, under a contract with Sabreliner Corp.

The company, headquartered in St. Louis, provides maintenance and pilot contract services under a contract that expires in fall 1998. Under the agreement, Sabreliner will continue to provide aircraft maintenance and pilot contract services through the contract period.

During the six years the Navy has been using the T-39N aircraft and simulators, the UNFO program has performed with a 98 percent mission reliability, surpassing the 95 percent requirement.

The aircraft has flown more than 58,000 hours accident-free since the start of the $242 million contract. The Navy flies each of the planes about 1,000 miles a year.

"There is a direct relationship between the outstanding performance of the T-39N UNFO aircraft and the workmanship of men and women at Sabreliner's Perryville facility," said U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau. "They are to be congratulated for their efforts."

The T-39N sale will keep the aircraft flying for years to come.

The Navy will have interrupted training and at the same time, save the Navy over $100 million every eight years, said Rear Adm. Glenn P. Phillips, deputy commander for acquisition and operations for Naval Air Systems Command.

Sabreliner will be among bidders for the new maintenance contract next year.

The UNFO program includes air-to-air intercept training, air-to-ground radar mapping and navigation training and non-radar navigation training. Each aircraft can accommodate three students and two instructors.

Sabreliner provides maintenance and modification of a variety of government, military, corporate, airline and cargo aircraft engines, systems and components. The company has annual sales of more than $250 million.