Aircraft site grounded by debts

Louise Brittain of Baker Tilly has been appointed joint liquidator of Farnborough-aircraft.com, a company partly owned by Richard Noble, the man behind the world's first supersonic land speed record breaking car.

Written by Adriana Zea

Accountancy Age, 19 Sep 2002

Link: Profile: Louise Brittain

Brittain was appointed after the company was put into creditors voluntary liquidation, owing £720,000.

The company was almost put into administration after investment dried up, but the petition was removed at the last moment. Baker Tilly is investigating the assets to maximise return to creditors.

Farnborough-aircraft.com was designing the F1 aircraft, a high-speed plane and had a website detailing progress of the project. In March 2000 the company also launched an online merchandise shop.

In July at a shareholder meeting, Farnborough Aircraft Corporation presented proposals to run the F1 project and Noble subsequently resigned as director.

Makers of the plane had expected to build the aircraft and receive European and US certification by the end of 2006 - they said they had $4m (£2.6m) worth of orders shortly after launching.