The Standard-Examiner is johnny-on-the-spot this morning, with an Ace Reporter Schwebke article describing Adam Aircraft's stockholder warning letter, a story we broke here on Weber County Forum two days ago.
Rather than suffer the indignity of acknowledging lowly WCF as his source, however, Mr. Schwebke dredged up this Wichita Eagle article from January 22, 2008 instead.
Alas, the Std-Ex continues to pretend WCF doesn't even exist -- except on those rare occasions when our home town newspaper slings mud. Doesn't the Std-Ex realize that WCF truly wants to be its best buddy?
We don't mind being ignored, however. It's OK if we remain the Mr. Schwebke's secret behind the scenes scource. The important thing is that the Std-Ex has now informed its general readership that Adam Aircraft's financial circumstances are considerably more dire than the Std-Ex originally reported.
Adam Aircraft's next drop dead date? Tomorrow, the Std-Ex reports.
All kidding aside, our favorite Ace Reporter did some additional sleuthing on this story. We were relieved to learn, for instance, that the State of Utah has not yet advanced any money to the Adams Aircraft venture. And while we were not at all surprised that Emerald City Economic Development Department Head Honcho Dave Harmer remains entirely unflustered by the latest Adams Aircraft developments, we do wish Mr. Schwebke had found out what Mr. Harmer has been smoking, and told us how we can get our hands of some of that too.
All in all a well written story. We recommend that our readers give it a read.
Update 1/30/08 12:55 p.m. MT: Subsequent googling has revealed an article which seems to put a finger on Adam Aircraft's current problem. According to the online journal Jets' RU, the end of month deadline stems from the demands of senior lenders, who've demanded full payment of $30.5 million in loans by January 31. It seems obvious to us that Adam probably has some "wiggle room" time-wise, unless the debt instruments provide for immediate surrender of Adam's assets in the event of default. Time will tell, we suppose.
And to all of those who've accused Emerald City officials of failing to do due diligence with respect to this financially pressed aircraft manufacturer, the article supplies this interesting paragraph:
On Jan. 18, three days after Wolf sent a letter to company shareholders, Headline Industry News reported that Adam laid off more than a third of its workforce. Nine days earlier on Jan. 9, the company said it was focusing its resources on its VLJ, to obtain type certification. The company insisted it was on "target for certification of the A700 in 2008." The company never let on how dismal its financial situation was.In all fairness, it's tough to properly vet a company when they're playing it so close to the vest.
Comments, anyone?
