Hampson Aerospace Tooling Solutions ("Hampson"), part of Hampson Industries PLC, a UK-listed international aerospace and precision engineering group, announced it has entered into a contract with Piper Aircraft, Inc. Under the contract, Hampson is to provide complete turnkey design, fabrication, installation, testing and certification of the full suite of assembly and bond tooling for the fuselage, empennage, and wing for the aviation company's new single-engine PiperJet Altaire.

"We were impressed with the diverse capabilities that Hampson offers from design and engineering through final tool installation," said Piper Vice President of Operations Simon Caldecott. "We know that Hampson is highly qualified to execute the design and manufacturing of tooling for the PiperJet Altaire program."

The PiperJet Altaire is the only single-engine business jet with a combined speed, range, and payload that outperforms twin-engine jets in its category. The single-pilot PiperJet Altaire is a light, all-metal, high-performance business jet with a larger cabin environment than many twin-engine entry-level jets. The PiperJet Alatire costs significantly less to operate per hour than any comparable aircraft.

The first of four conforming PiperJet Altaire flight test aircraft will begin flying in 2012. Certification and first customer deliveries are planned for 2014.

"We are delighted to be working closely with Piper Aircraft on this new, high performance program," said Don Stockton, Hampson Aerospace Tooling Solutions Chief Executive Officer. "Building on our position as the world's largest independent supplier of specialist, tight tolerance tooling systems, we have continued to broaden and develop our service offering to our global customer base."

"In particular, we have enhanced our integration capabilities to focus on helping our customers reduce assembly cost and manufacturing cycle times," stated Stockton, "We are honored to have an esteemed company like Piper Aircraft as a partner in our growth and look forward to playing our part in the success of this exciting new program."

The new Hampson project will be a true "concurrent" program, as the aircraft level engineering will be being completed in parallel with the tool design and fabrication work. Initial tool delivery is expected to be in March 2011 with contract completion expected around 12 months later.