Geoffrey Galley, the major investor at Farnborough Aircraft Corporation, has agreed to keep financing the troubled F1 single-engine turboprop, according to company spokesman Richard Blaine.

The company was also able to confirm that parts for the F1 are now being manufactured, with the aircraft’s first flight projected for the first half of next year.

Primarily conceived as an ‘air taxi’ for transporting small passenger groups, with the potential to be adapted for medical transport, the F1 has had a history of funding difficulties since the project was launched by company founder Richard Noble in 1999.

In 2002, after a legal battle to secure the rights to develop the F1, Noble was replaced by Galley, with shareholders voting to pass the rights to the new Farnborough Aircraft Corporation.

A single engine turboprop, the F1 is capable of seating up to five passengers in business jet style. Described by the company as “a high technology, hardworking ‘Mercedes’ of an aircraft”, the F1 has already undergone over 65,000 hours of development work, with the company estimating that the aircraft will sell for around $2.2 million and have low operating costs.

The company also points out that recent changes to both US and European operating rules will allow all weather operation of single engine turbine aircraft, such as the F1, making the aircraft’s development particularly timely.