Airline hoping to begin flights from Youngstown to Chicago responds to complaint, says it paid its $400,000 debt

By Ed Runyan | January 1, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

VIENNA

Aerodynamics Inc., the airline proposing daily flights between Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and Chicago O’Hare International as early as April, responded Wednesday to an objection filed by “a competitor.”

The objection said Aerodynamics Inc. (ADI) and its new owners, Portland, Ore., real-estate developer John Beardsley and his wife, Janet, were in default on a $400,000 promissory note to James Paquette of Via Airlines.

The response contains a Tuesday emailed letter from ADI saying the company would be sending payment that day in excess of $410,000 to pay the remaining principal balance, interest and late fees on the $400,000 note to Paquette.

The objection said ADI failed to make $8,766 payments in August, September, October and November.

ADI’s response said the objection is “moot because the note has been paid in full,” adding that the objection also was “a misguided effort by a competitor of ADI to retaliate against ADI.”

The ADI response includes two court entries in which a federal judge approved a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Via relating to a lawsuit ADI filed against Via and other entities for breach of contract and misappropriation of ADI trade secrets.

The $400,000, plus interest, late fees and collection costs and $300,000 paid earlier, is related to a finding by another federal judge and jury that ADI’s former CEO, Scott A. Beale, defrauded Paquette.

Paquette was president of Flight Test Aviation Inc. of Chantilly, Va., when Beale induced Paquette to invest $500,000 in ADI in 2012. The jury ordered Beale to pay Paquette $500,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages in the case.

As a result of the fraud case, the DOT in January 2015 tentatively denied ADI’s request to provide daily flights to Chicago. Beale sold ADI to the Beardsleys, and on Nov. 30, 2015, the DOT gave tentative approval to the service.

Dan Dickten, director of aviation, said he expects the DOT in early January to provide final ADI approval to start the service. Startup is expected around April 1.

It would provide 10 round-trip flights per week between the two airports on a 50-passenger aircraft.