Everyone: This is a very condensed report of what has taken place in the last year or so regarding the disposition of the Express Aircraft Company assets. As you know, Barry Henthorn took control of the assets of the Express Aircraft Company in mid 2005. Since that time there have been a few posts from him in what I believe to be an attempt to make everyone sit still and wait for disaster (the statute of limitations to run out). Here is what has happened. After waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Mr. Henthorn (a/k/a Exosphere/Express) to start making the parts that they said they would make available, five of us that had purchased kits from Express when it was still under the control of Larry Olson, decided to attempt to gain control of these assets for the general benefit of ALL of the builders. We had run out of patience. And really didn't believe Henthorn's intentions were to help any of us anyway. So we filed suit and each of us got judgments from the court in our favor for sums due for undelivered parts and prepaid builder's assist sessions that were not delivered. The total came to about $250,000. Since there was no hope of collecting, we petitioned the court to seize the assets and have a sheriff's sale. This would have put all of the Express assets back under the control of the five of us who intended to use them for the benefit of all of the builders. This sale was to have taken place on April the 6th of this year. One day before the sale was to take place, in a last ditch effort to keep possession of OUR assets, Mr. Henthorn filed the company in to bankruptcy (reorganization) and requested the court to have the sheriff hand over HIS assets so that he could "continue" in business.

Now here is the interesting part. In the assignment agreement between Roy Davis/Nancy Moon and Henthorn, he (Henthorn) agreed to keep the interest paid on the line of credit at the bank and to refinance it within six months. This didn't happen so Davis and Moon had their collateral taken by the bank (a $100,000 certificate of deposit). Mr. Henthorn also agreed to pay the IRS for back taxes that were owed. This amounted to about $10,000 and never happened either. Mr. Henthorn agreed to pay Davis/Moon for their shares in the company with a personal note. This never happened. And despite what Davis and Moon had told us in their letter of September the 14th of 2004, they evidently did not part out their airplane so other people could finish theirs. They (according to Mr. Henthorn) sold him their airplane (again for a signature note) for $50,000. He never paid for that one either. So what did Mr. Henthorn have invested in all of this? One measly dollar! To add insult to injury, he has been selling off the assets in the hanger and had attempted to sell the demonstrator last fall as well. Nice deal if you can get it! Pay nothing, liquidate the assets, put the money in your pocket, and let everyone else go hang! What a nice guy!

Well, when Mr. Henthorn petitioned the court for reorganization, the judge (a very astute guy) decided to hold a hearing (May 29th, 2007) and see what each of had to say about the matter. Mr. Henthorn testified for about an hour and twenty minutes. At which time, the judge had heard enough. He didn't even want (need) to hear our testimony. Mr. Henthorn had driven enough nails in his own coffin that he was done! The judge dismissed the reorganization petition and sent everyone home. Later that week, Mr. Henthorn's attorney put the company back into bankruptcy for liquidation. What that essentially means to all of us now is that after the professionals (attorneys and accountants) are done siphoning all of their fees out of this thing, there will be a sale or auction to pay them and very little money left over for the distribution to the Express builders.

I have heard that there are several of you out there that think the five of us that spent all of this time, effort and money "were in it for ourselves". Sure, we hoped to eventually get reimbursed for our trouble (about $35,000 to date in attorney fees). But we had also hoped to help the rest of the builders in the process. So for those of you that are still non believers, if you have the time, listen to the entire hearing by clicking on www.wolfelt.com/express/Express_Hearing.mp2 and perhaps you will see this thing in a different light. If you don't have the time to listen to the entire thing, at least take the time to listen to what the judge has to say from 1:20:18 (the time that Henthorn was done testifying) to 1:25:30. We still hope that this stuff will see the light of day again before everyone gives up on building.

I personally am still making progress on my project with the help of Darrell Peterson and Dan Roundtree at their hanger in Toledo, Washington. For those of you that want to complete your projects, I would suggest giving them a call at 360-864-6271 or contacting them via the web site at www.compairtechllc.com They are good guys and can really help you complete your projects with parts availability and composite construction as well.

Best of luck to everyone. GHW