NEW SABRELINER CONTRACT BOOST FOR PERRYVILLE; PLANT WILL CONTINUE TO MAINTAIN NAVY'S T-39Ns

PERRYVILLE -- Navy officials had their first look at a modified T-39N aircraft in June 1991, at Perryville Municipal Airport.

They liked what they saw.

The Navy has been using the T-39Ns for its Undergraduate Naval Flight Officers (UNFO) training program at Pensacola, Fla., since 1991, under a contract with Sabreliner Corp. The company provides maintenance and pilot contract services under a contract that expires in fall 1998.

Sabreliner this week announced that it had reached an agreement to sell the Navy 17, T-39N aircraft and simulators equipped for radar training. The sale price is $42.5 million pending final negotiations.

Under the agreement, Sabreliner would continue to provide aircraft maintenance and pilot contract services.

Sabreliner was awarded a $242 million UNFO contract in 1990. St. Louis-based Sabreliner, an aerospace service, modification and manufacturing company, purchased and rebuilt 17 former Sabreliner business jets to a training configuration, installing fighter aircraft radar in each plane.

The new military version of the Sabreliner business jet is the T-39. The UNFO aircraft was designated T-39N by the Navy.

The T-39Ns were well-suited in their role as radar training aircraft since the Sabreliner aircraft were originally designed to rugged military specifications. Sabreliner, which no longer produces aircraft, engineered and performed additional structural enhancements to the T-39Ns to extend their use up to 30,000 hours of flight. The Navy flies each of the planes about 1,000 hours a year.

The new sales contract assures that maintenance work will continue at Perryville, said Barry Dunigan of Tretter-Gorman Inc., a St. Louis public relations company that handles Sabreliner.

"Day-to-day maintenance, of course, will be performed at the Naval base at Pensacola," said Dunnigan. "But heavy maintenance will be continued at Perryville."

Sabreliner Corp., which has sales of more than $200 million a year, has facilities in eight states and employs more than 2,000 people.

Employment at the Perryville plant, situated at the Perryville Airport, fluctuates from 45 to 300. Current employment at Perryville is 213, up from the 178 during the same time a year ago.

The UNFO program provides initial training to Navy, Air Force and foreign military flight officers, navigators and weapon systems operators -- personnel who go on to assignments in frontline tactical aircraft such as the F-14 fighter, A-6 attack bomber, S-3 anti-submarine aircraft and others.

The sale of the system to the Navy makes the best and most economical use of the assets of the UNFO program, said F. Holmes Lamoreux, chairman and chief executive officer of Sabreliner Corp. The T-39s are the only U.S. training aircraft not owned by the military.

"I'm glad the Navy has followed through on its decision to procure the T-39Ns," said U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond "This airplane has performed superbly in the past years of use as a flight officer training craft," the Missouri Republican said.

The planes have flown more than 56,000 hours accident-free since the start of the service contract.

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.

During the past two years, Sabreliner has won eight competitive government contracts totaling more than $400 million, including options. The firm also has modifications and refurbishment contracts with foreign governments, including Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico and Sweden.

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.