The Brazilian aircraft manufacturer SEAMAX Aircraft has begun final assembly operations for its M-22 model in the USA.

This company has been planning this move for the past three years, requiring extensive market research and engineering upgrades. The company engaged with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where some 100 students, both graduate, and undergraduate students tutored by business professors, have been involved.

SEAMAX was already developing new features to the M-22 to match with the US market needs. New instrument panel versions, including a sophisticated all-glass cockpit, have been introduced. New safety features have been added, and the Rotax 912 iS, injected engine, is now offered as an option to the aircraft. With all these variables combined, this year, SEAMAX delivered its first IFR capable aircraft customized to a veteran fighter pilot and international Boeing 767 Captain for a major US airline company.

The US-based assembly operations also enable factory-level support, maintenance, spare parts inventory, and training capabilities, in a prime location at Daytona Beach International Airport, Florida. The company brand new assembly line building is located at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Research Park with a brand new taxiway designed to provide convenient access to the facilities.

SEAMAX M-22, which has been exported to over twenty countries, and holds a certification in more than a dozen countries, has been manufactured since 2000. "Today, after 20 years of continuous engineering improvement, the product is mature enough to allow the company to transfer technology to the United States," says Shalom Confessor, SEAMAX Executive Director for the United States. "This has been a very bold but conservative, gradual, and very well planned move for our company. SEAMAX is continuously listening to the voice of the customer and the most prominent aviation experts and connected with the most reputable aviation institutions in the globe before we decided to bring the assembly operations to the United States."

For the company CEO, Dr. Gilberto Trivelato, the SEAMAX assembly in the US "will allow the company to integrate and leverage the Seamax M-22 aircraft as a business and the company future developments and projects into the USA existing cluster to accelerate further our technology and business capabilities by the exchange of know-how."

The SEAMAX M-22 is a high-performance amphibious LSA. It is built of composite materials in Brazil.