Gyroplane developer Groen Brothers Aviation has canceled its plans announced last year to move its headquarters from Salt Lake City to Glendale, Ariz.
It now plans to stay in Utah and focus on its recently formed American Autogyro Inc. subsidiary, which is to produce gyroplanes for the kit market.
"We have developed a lot of manufacturing and design expertise over the years," Groen Brothers chief executive David Groen said. "The kit-built market is the ideal place for us to put that expertise to use."
Groen Brothers also is negotiating with its creditors to restructure its debt.
"But that is nothing new," Groen said. "We are talking with our creditors all the time, and have been for years."
Since its founding two decades ago, Groen Brothers has tried to gain Federal Aviation Administration certification for a commercial-built gyroplane, a cross between a helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft. The company said it has made progress in that direction, but commercial sales of the aircraft have not yet materialized and FAA certification remains out of reach.
Groen said recent support the company has received from Utah's congressional delegation, whose members have supported the idea that the company's aircraft should be evaluated for homeland defense purposes, also helped persuade the company to remain in Utah.
One of American Autogyro's first goals is to begin marketing a $5,000 "stability augmentation kit" for the RAF-2000, a two-seat gyroplane offered by the Canadian-based Rotary Air Force Marketing Inc.
An RAF-2000 crashed near Ogden last year, killing the pilot and a passenger.
Rotary Air Force general manager Don LaFleur said Groen brothers has been contacting his customers trying to sell the stability kit.
"They are assuming there is a stability problem but there are a lot of differing opinions on that subject," he said. "They haven't conducted any flight tests on our aircraft that we know of."
LaFleur does not believe the best way to enter the kit-built market is to cast aspersions on a competitor's product.
Groen Brothers said its expects the first deliveries of American Autogyro's gyroplane kits will be this summer. The basic kit will cost about $25,000.