Steve Akers and Daniel Smith of Grant Thornton UK LLP were appointed Joint Administrators of SkyCat Group Limited on Monday 25 June 2007.The Skycatgroup just recently bought assets from the Advanced Technologgies Group, which went out of business, we have reported in may about the new Skycatgroup Website, everyone was hoping that the Skycat, a new hybrid airship concept would finally be built. But the announcement of a court filing by Lockheed Martin against Roger Munk and Skycatgroup probably put a quick end to the newly started company. Of course this is speculation, we have no contact with the Skycat group or Roger Munk and thus don't know more. I believe the Skycat is still not dead. But it doesn't seem to fly soon. If you have more infos for us, send them to us or add comments to this post. As soon as we know more, we will be posting here on the blog.
The Administrators are currently assessing the position of the businesses and can be contacted at:
Grant Thornton UK LLP
Grant Thornton House
Melton Street
Euston Square
London
NW1 2EP
Tel: +44 (0)870 991 2417
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Skycat group in adminsitration
Trevor Monk reported on thE Airship-list that the Skycatgroup is in administration. Which can also be read on their Website:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
This is very sad news indeed. I sincerely hope that Skycat get things going again as the benefits of this design are clear.
I would hope that the Skycat design was covered by patent, in which case Lockheed Martin doesn't have a leg to stand on. Even the most cursory glance at the two designs shows one influenced the other and given Skunkworks' legendary secrecy and Skykitten's first flight in 2000, I think we know which did the influencing!
Does anyone know which patent Lockheed Martin is claiming has been infringed?
http://atgaircushionpatent.notlong.com/ has ATG's US air cushion landing system patent
Hey, thanks for the comment, yes we all would wish to get things solved for Skycat and Roger Munk. Thanks for pointing out the Aircushion Patent.
Munks patent describes a pair of hover cusions. The Lockheed craft has four hover cushions, so the patent is not applicable.
Besides Munk worked for Lockheed on the Aerocraft project, the airship design before P-791, and it wasnt until after Aerocraft, that he copied, sorry "Invented" Skycat.
The Skycat puzzle continues read our latest post for the newest developments from SkyCat.
Hi folks,
The design team certainly rose from the ashes with Hybrid Air Vehicles, to win the LEMV contract, with partner Northrop Grumman.
I just asked a few folks how they were doing with the HAV 304 for the US Army and everything is go for a first flight mid summer and on time deployment to Afghanistan. Also I suspect they could well win the US Air Force contract next year for a Skycat 20 as the only alternative is the wobbly P 791 which has a yaw / roll coupling problem similar to dutch roll. That means they will have to start again if they can find a new design team.
Regards JB (Gasbags comedy www.hybridblimp.net)
I wonder if you have info about these administrative issues!
Post a Comment