Fairchild Dornier has won a contract to convert two former German air force Alpha Jets to civil standards for the international Red Bull energy drink aircraft team, The Flying Bulls. The contract value was not released.

The two Alpha Jets will join the Flying Bulls fleet consisting of a B-25 Mitchell bomber, an F4U-4 Corsair, Douglas DC-6B, a Cessna CE 208 Caravan, a Grumman G-44 Widgeon, and T-28B Trojan. The Alpha Jets will be delivered in early 2002.

To certify the fighters for civilian use, Fairchild Dornier will remove all military equipment, including external wing stores, gun pods, counter measures systems, ejection seat, and all related electrical and control systems.

In addition to performing depot level maintenance on the two jets, the company may install new avionics systems such as VOR/ILS including marker receiver and distance measuring equipment, global posi-tioning system, VHF commun-ications, and Mode S transponder.