As customer orders for the Galaxy business jet aircraft gather pace, Galaxy Aerospace president and ceo Brian E Barents has revealed the company's desire to become the market leader for product support within its industry segment. "We want to build a world class organisation to share our vision to be number one in product support," he said. To back this up he points to the number of authorised maintenance facilities which has risen from 16 to 21 and field service centres which is up from six to nine. He also points to the current availability of Astra manuals on CD-Rom as evidence of the company's growing commitment to product support.\rHe believes that the new jet bridges the gap between medium and larger size jets and claims that a third of Galaxy operators are trading down from aircraft such as Gulfstream IIIs and Falcon 50s. Currently 40 per cent of Galaxys are being sold outside of North America, though it is estimated that 65 per cent of all Galaxys will ultimately be for the US market. Nine of the aircraft will be delivered this year along with 12 SPX midsize jets. Galaxy deliveries will increase to 15 next year and stabilise at 18 to 24 in subsequent years. Barents says that the company's order book exceeds US$600 million and that the Galaxy backlog is now beyond two years.\rThe company has recently completed the final phase of its move to its new headquarters complex on Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas. The $12 million facility houses a factory service centre, completion centre and parts distribution centre, as well as worldwide corporate and marketing offices. "Already we have seen outstanding satisfaction ratings in internal surveys of our service centre customers," claims Barents. "This tells us our business strategy is correct and we are on the right course." The site was chosen after Galaxy Aerospace evaluated proposals from 42 cities.\rHe added that the organisation is growing rapidly with more than 150 employees today and plans to grow to more than 200 employees by the year's end. Parts inventories are also increasing significantly, up 32 per cent last year, with the expectation of increasing by another 67 per cent this year.\r"We said at the launch of Galaxy Aerospace that our goal was to be number one in product support within our industry segment. Today, more than ever, this looks to us like an achievable goal over the next few years. The opening and staffing of our factory service centre and the improvement of our logistics support will assure our success in attaining that objective," he believes.