The long-simmering lawsuit between Archedyne Aerospace and Lake Aircraft reached a resolution of sorts on June 21 when the jury in the Ninth Judicial Court of Osceola County, Fla., sided with Archedyne, finding Lake Aircraft owner Armand Rivard guilty of several fraud counts. The court awarded Dr. Leonard Gioia, Archedyne CEO and founder, $500,000 for the purchase deposit that Gioia paid to Rivard in a failed deal to buy Lake Aircraft, and $750,000 in damages. George Wight of Chicago, also named in the lawsuit, failed to appear in court and via a directed verdict was found guilty of similar fraud charges. Rivard has filed for a new trial, according to Dennis Bonneau, Archedyne’s director of business development. Lake Aircraft did not return AIN’s phone calls.

Bonneau said design of the Nauticair amphibious twinjet is “proceeding at a slow pace,” mainly via CAD, with a prototype at least three to four years on the horizon. “We’ll have to see how things turn out,” he said. The company plans to build a one-third-scale, radio-controlled flying model first, Bonneau added, and has already acquired two AMT 45-lb-thrust jet engines for this purpose.