Epic Aircraft has called an unscheduled news conference for Wednesday at the National Business Aviation Association convention in which it is expected to announce a major funding infusion from an Indian businessman — but Airbus is also sharing the podium, and that might lend some credence to rumors that its parent company EADS was considering a shot at the very light jet market. (We heard the factory will be on the Isle of Wight, but we’ve also been told we’re wrong.) Whatever is being announced on Wednesday, it’s being described as a “strategic alliance” between Epic, India-based Kingfisher Airlines and Airbus.
In early September, an Indian newspaper reported that Vijay Mallya, the billionaire owner of Kingfisher Airlines, was poised to put $200 million of his own money into Epic. Airbus’s involvement isn’t clear, and an EADS spokesman recently told AVweb that the company was not developing a VLJ. Maybe he missed the memo.
We’ll know soon enough.
Source: avweb
