Nexaer, a small startup company at Meadow Lake Airport northeast of Colorado Springs, hopes to soon take the first flight of its new two-seat airplane.
Paul Klahn founded Nexaer in 2001 to develop new aircraft. His company has six employees and three hangars.
Entry-level pilots are a key target market for the light-sport aircraft that Nexaer is developing. The plane could sell for about $85,000 to $120,000.
Nexaer’s plane would fall under the Federal Aviation Administration’s sport pilot, light-sport aircraft rule, which makes it quicker and cheaper to learn to fly for recreation.
Nexaer hopes to attract potential buyers with a more comfortable and spacious interior and a lower price compared with many other private planes.
After the first flight, Nexaer would further develop the plane and seek certification under the light-sport aircraft rule.
Nexaer is one of a cluster of small aviation and aerospace companies planning to move to Wyoming, lured by financial incentives.
Klahn said the likelihood is strong that the company will move to Laramie this year.
“The state of Wyoming is very proactive with state grants to help get businesses located there,” Klahn has said. “They’ve got a strong economy right now, particularly with their fossil-fuel basis.”
The airport is “waiting to be filled up, and they’ve got a university up there with a pretty good engineering college.”
Though economic development officials are interested in helping keep companies in Colorado, “it just seems like there’s not either the community or the state-level support to offer competitive programs with what some of the other states are doing,” Klahn said. “It’s kind of unfortunate.”
He said Nexaer could move to a temporary facility in Laramie this year, then to a permanent facility there next year, with at least 75,000 square feet.
Klahn expects that the company could bring the plane to market next year, eventually produce hundreds of planes a year and grow to 150 to 300 employees over five years.
A round of private-equity financing is taking the company through its first flight. Securing another round of private- equity financing is a milestone to reach before closing the deal with Wyoming, Klahn said.
Enfusion Technologies is a supplier to Nexaer, and a benefit of the move to Laramie is that the companies could be near each other, Klahn said.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at
303-820-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
