BRUNSWICK ? It started with a voice-mail message.
In the spring, several months after a bitter split with the company he founded, aviation visionary Alan Klapmeier left a message for the agency redeveloping Brunswick Naval Air Station.
The message, according to Klapmeier, went something like this: "Hi, I'm Alan Klapmeier, co-founder of Cirrus Design. We're looking at starting a new company to build airplanes. I was wondering if somebody could get back to me."
Several months later, at a July 23 press conference at the Augusta State Airport, Klapmeier, Gov. John Baldacci and the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority announced a $100 million deal to bring Kestrel Aircraft to the base, which will become Brunswick Landing after the U.S. Navy leaves in May 2011.
The deal is being touted as the first major step on a long road toward post-base closure economic recovery. Three hundred manufacturing jobs are predicted. The often-ballyhooed composites industry is supposed to benefit. Supporting businesses might be lured to Brunswick Landing.
Replica Baume Mercier Watches Asia How much of that happens may largely depend on Klapmeier, whose reputation as a charismatic visionary is sometimes accompanied by other adjectives, such as stubborn and quixotic.
It's almost certain to be Klapmeier who determines the success of the Kestrel, a single-engine turboprop once owned by Farnborough Aircraft of Great Britain. The plane has been in development since 2002, and until recently, was going nowhere.
That changed when Klapmeier and his team of Cirrus expatriates purchased development rights, promising design and performance improvements, proven development expertise and star power to woo investors.
Despite the high failure rate of aviation projects, the industry response has been mostly positive.
cheap_Gucci Joy_shop_usa_uk_58 The Kestrel announcement in Augusta drew coverage from prominent trade publications. Several days later, at the AirVenture airshow in Oshkosh, Wis., news of Klapmeier's new venture spread internationally, prompting analyses from the industry's heavy hitters.
The buzz centers on Klapmeier, who co-founded Cirrus Design 28 years ago with his brother Dale. Despite early cash flow issues, Cirrus eventually certified and produced the SF20 and SF22, two composite planes that revolutionized an industry previously wedded to aluminum airframes.
The SF22 is the best-selling aircraft in the world. Cirrus is now mentioned alongside Cessna. And Klapmeier, thanks to his stubborn, romantic vision is compared to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
In his book "Free Flight," journalist and former Jimmy Carter speechwriter Jim Fallows put Klapmeier's aerospace innovations alongside those of NASA.
Most recently, in the Aug. 4 edition of The Atlantic magazine, industry journalist Lane Wallace advanced the Jobs comparison. Kestrel, Wallace said, could become Klapmeier's Pixar.
"... Aviation's equivalent of Steve Jobs is back in the game," Wallace wrote. "And that means all kinds of transformative innovations will now have a place and a greater opportunity to develop."
Klapmeier laughs at the Jobs-Pixar comparison, but not dismissively.
"Relatively speaking, I hope this is as successful as Pixar," Klapmeier said in telephon
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