Trans-Pacific Aerospace (USA) has announced several initiatives to bring the startup online and into commercial bearing production.

Formerly known as Pinnacle Energy, Trans-Pacific Aerospace got its start in February 2010 after disposing of previous oil and gas business interests, then acquiring the assets of Harbin Aerospace Company.

Trans-Pacific plans to design, manufacture and sell aerospace quality component parts for commercial and military aircraft, space vehicles, power plants and surface and undersea vessels. The company's Chairman and CEO is William McKay, founder of Harbin Aerospace.

Prior to found Harbin Aerospace, Mr. McKay was COO of Acromil. Prior to Acromil, he spent 10 years with Southwest Products Company, a precision aerospace spherical bearing manufacturer and engineering consulting firm, rising to CEO. When Hong Kong aerospace bearing company Sunbase Asia acquired Southwest Products in 1996, Mr. McKay became President and CEO of Sunbase Asia. In 2000, Sunbase Asia divested Southwest Products back to Mr. McKay and other investors. Southwest Products shut down in 2005 and was acquired by RBC Bearings Inc. It now operates as RBC Southwest Products.

Trans-Pacific's first focus is self-lubricating spherical bearings for flight-critical tasks, including aircraft flight controls and landing gear.

Pre-revenue, operations have focused on product design and engineering.

Going forward, Trans-Pacific said it plans to leverage product design and engineering expertise and assets to form joint ventures and/or other business relationships with local partners in markets outside the United States.

Those partners will then handle local manufacturing, sales and distribution. Initial target markets are China, India and the Middle East.

Beyond overseas relationships, Trans-Pacific said it plans a small manufacturing facility in the U.S. to handle short run, short lead time components for military weapon systems and commercial aerospace customers.

Last month, Trans-Pacific we acquired 25% of Godfrey China Limited (Hong Kong), in exchange for design and production technology for of SAE AS81820, AS81934 and AS81935 self-lubricated spherical bearings, bushings and rod-end bearings.

Godfrey has raised $1.2 million to establish a manufacturing facility in Zhongshan, Guangdong, and formed a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE) to operate in China and export markets. The Zhongshan facility is just now preparing to enter the U.S. Navy qualification process in July.

If Zhongshan receives approval, which could happen as early as October 2010, the plant's bearings would be put on the Society of Automotive Engineers Qualified Producers List, allowing Chinese and international airframe manufacturers, sub-tier suppliers, MRO facilities, airlines and aircraft parts distributors to purchase its bearings. Zhongshan would also become the first facility in China to receive approval for production of SAE AS81820, AS81934 and AS81935 spherical bearings, bushings and rod end bearings.

Trans-Pacific said commercial production and delivery at Zhongshan could begin shortly after it receives approval.

Testing of prototypes produced by Godfrey in China were encouraging. Mr. McKay said: "We are very happy with the results of the prototype test. This success puts us on track for qualification and is a critical and necessary step in the qualification process. The success speaks to the quality of our tooling, bearing design and the bonding process being employed. It shows the skill of our qualification team in producing high quality bearings."

Mr. McKay went on to say, "In addition to the successful testing, all tooling for the qualification has been manufactured and approved by Trans-Pacific Aerospace Company. Furthermore, component designs have been turned into prototype parts and have been successfully manufactured. Our prototype parts look great, so full production of all SAE qualification test components has commenced and we expect them to be completed in time to meet our schedule for qualification production, testing and acceptance."