Britten-Norman BN-2 Production (2)

By the time a decision had been made to cease Trislander production, eleven Trislander airframe kits remained (c/ns 1062 – 1072), along with one unsold completed airframe (c/n 1061) and c/n 1038, the Pilatus Britten-Norman demonstrator, which had been dismantled and stored at Bembridge since 1979. Pilatus Britten-Norman sold a manufacturing license to the International Aviation Corporation (IAC) of Homestead, Florida, a company owned by Ronald L. and Helen H. Hauck. The Hauck’s also owned another company, Interamerican Aviation Corporation, and both these companies had been involved in importing Trislanders to the USA.

It was planned for IAC to build Trislanders (to be known as Tri-Commutairs) from parts kits supplied by Britten-Norman before undertaking full production. All thirteen remaining Trislanders were sold to IAC, but the one complete aircraft, c/n 1061, was not delivered and eventually reregistered to Pilatus Britten-Norman in January 1983. In the end, it was sold to the Taiwan Aviation Corporation, Taipei, Taiwan, and delivered on 15 February 1984. The kits were shipped from Southampton to Port Everglades, Florida on 5 August 1982 aboard MV Finnclipper. The airframes, still dismantled, were registered to IAC as follows:

• c/n 1038 N3265Q
• c/n 1062 N3265T
• c/n 1063 N3266A
• c/n 1064 N3266B
• c/n 1065 N3266G
• c/n 1066 N3266H
• c/n 1067 N3266K
• c/n 1068 N3266R
• c/n 1069 N3266T
• c/n 1070 N3266W
• c/n 1071 N3267A
• c/n 1072 N3267J

However, IAC was in difficulties, and a new Hauck company, the similarly named International Aircraft Corporation, was formed on 10 November 1983, ownership of the kits being transferred in March 1984. Nothing came of this and ownership eventually returned to Pilatus Britten-Norman. All the kits remained in the USA and eventually c/n 1065 was sold by PBN in June 1992 to Florida Air Motive, Lantana, Florida. It then went to Anglo Normandy Aero Engineering, Guernsey, Channel Islands in November 1995, being used in rebuild of c/n 359.

In 1990, PB-N reached agreement with Australian aircraft trader Lancelot Henry ‘Lance’ Watson, operating as Audrey Promotions, Camden, New South Wales, for him to acquire and assemble the kits. Audrey Promotions was in fact owned by Audrey Watson, Lance’s wife, and the acquisition was apparently without her knowledge or approval! It was intended that PB-N would continue to hold manufacturing rights for the design, but Audrey Promotions expected to obtain a license to manufacture the aircraft after selling the initial kits. Basic assemblies were to be finished by Fixed & Rotary Wing Engineering in Camden, New South Wales, (later changed to Audrey Promotions' hangar at Port MacQuarie, New South Wales). PB-N modification was to be incorporated to extend indefinitely the Trislander's 20,000h wing-spar life. Audrey Promotions planned a modified version of the Trislander with three 450 h.p. V8 engines, certificated to run on unleaded automotive fuel and expected to see a 30% cut in fuel consumption, higher cruise and climb speeds and better field performance. To be known as the Tri-Commuter, it was expected to have a price a little over $1 million.

The kits remained in Florida, and ownership moved in 1996 to Phoenix Continental Corporation, a Florida corporation, presumably as a means of providing financial support for Watson’s plans. The aircraft were now reregistered (all incorrectly recorded in the FAA database as BN-2A-3 instead of BN-2A Mk III!!) in November 1996:

• c/n 1038 N199PC (Cancel Date 11 January 2018)
• c/n 1062 N299PC (Cancel Date 18 January 2018)
• c/n 1063 N399PC (Cancel Date 18 January 2018)
• c/n 1064 N599PC (Cancel Date 25 January 2018)
• c/n 1066 N899PC (Cancel Date 17 January 2018)
• c/n 1067 N279PC (Cancel Date 7 August 2012), sale pending
• c/n 1068 N449PC (Cancel Date 28 August 2013)
• c/n 1069 N559PC (Cancel Date 19 May 2015)
• c/n 1070 N629PC (Cancel Date 12 January 2018)
• c/n 1071 N929PC (Cancel Date 15 May 2015)

Watson claimed he was never paid for the kits because Phoenix Continental got in to serious trouble with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On 29 May 1997, the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered permanent injunctions against Phoenix Continental Corporation, along with its principals, Michael T. Honey and Robert Johnston, and appointed a Special Master to marshal the assets. In 1998, registration of the kits changed to Aero Masters, of Deland, Florida, with Lavonne Rice Johnson and Nell Johnson president and vice president respectively, although it is unclear where actual ownership lay.

In August 1999 it was announced that New Zealand-based Integrity Aircraft was in discussion with Britten-Norman about the development of a single-engined, turboprop-powered derivative of the Trislander, powered by an AlliedSignal TPE331. Integrity Aircraft Corporation Limited was incorporated on 26 March 1999 with, as joint presidents, Lance Watson and William John Johnson of Deland, Florida, husband of Lavonne Rice Johnson of Aero Masters, current registered owners of the Trislander kits. Integrity Aircraft stated it had been issued with a manufacturing licence by BN to enable it to develop the Trislander derivative, and a European Patent Application (EP1046577) was filed on 19 April 2000 to cover the new concept. The Integrity was to feature a series of modifications, including the elimination of the wing-mounted piston engines and the installation of a single 1,000 s.h.p. AlliedSignal TPE331-12 turboprop in place of the tail-mounted piston engine, driving a five-bladed McCauley propeller. The aircraft would feature a lengthened BN Defender 4000 nose incorporating its new avionics, the Islander 4000's wing and a 30in fuselage plug to counter the centre of gravity change resulting from the deletion of the wing engines, increasing capacity to the equivalent of 20 passengers.

Apparently, the partnership of Watson and Johnson did not fare well and the Integrity Aircraft Corporation Limited was deregistered on 25 November 2000. Meantime, Peter Van Dyke, who had been one of the funders of the Phoenix Continental Corporation, had formed the Premier Aviation Group, Inc. on 3 July 2002 and acquired the Trislander kits from the Wilmington Trust that took over the Phoenix Continental Corporation’s assets. In 2003, Van Dyke and Lance Watson jointly formed a new company, Integrity Aircraft Holdings Corporation, based in St. Kitts and Nevis, and ownership of the Trislander kits and the Integrity design moved once again (although the FAA database shows that the registered ownership remained with the Phoenix Continental Corporation).

On October 2, 2007, Three Sixty, Inc. announced that it had agreed to acquire Integrity Aircraft Holdings Limited, the new company to be renamed the IAHL Corporation. Peter Van Dyke, CEO of Integrity Aircraft Holdings Corporation, would become CEO of the IAH Corporation.

From this point, nothing more seems to have been heard of the Integrity project. The fact that a single engine 20 seat commuter aircraft would almost certainly never gain an airworthiness certificate with any of the major Airworthiness Authorities does not seem to have been a factor in the plans, and, not surprisingly the whole idea eventually appears to have come to nothing. The airframes were eventually deregistered:

• c/n 1067 N279PC in August 2012
• c/n 1068 N449PC in August 2013
• c/n 1069 N559PC and c/n 1071 N929PC in May 2015
• The remainder in January 2018

The eventual fate of the kits is unknown, though in 2018 a report surfaced that the Trislander parts were stored in Deland, Florida and had been purchased by Air Flamenco and may subsequently have been scrapped.

Integrity References

1. BNAPS News Vol 9 Iss 3 – May 2019
2. Flight International 16 Jun 1992
3. Flight International 16 May 1995
4. Flight International 18 Aug 1999
5. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/Profile.aspx?user=129730
6. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=26983597
7. FAA Database