Wellington, July 27 NZPA - Hamilton-based aircraft manufacturer Pacific Aerospace Ltd has taken its P-750 workhorse to a big American airshow to pitch it to missionary societies and groups which need to use short bush runways.

Pacific Aerospace is promoting its P-750 at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture in Oshkosh as an XSTOL (extreme short take-offs and landings) plane able to handle short runways and heavy loads.

Also at the Wisconsin airshow starting tomorrow will be Christchurch inventor Glenn Martin, who last year launched "the world's first practical jetpack", flown there by his 16-year-old son Harrison.

The Martin Aircraft Company Ltd was last year taking $US10,000 ($NZ15,450) deposits for the $US100,000 personal flying machines, but this time has left the rotor fan "jet pack" at home. Mr Martin is giving seminars and media presentations, and meeting key suppliers and advisers, but told the Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper the jet pack wouldn't be there because it cost too much to transport.

He said last year's demonstration cost him a lot of money, and that since then he had been improving the unit's "flyability, usability and reliability".

Pacific Aerospace is showing a New Zealand-built aircraft which has just completed a demonstration tour of Alaska and Canada, by North American distributor, Utility Aircraft USA.

The company said in a statement the 10-seat plane was cutting costs for operators in demanding locations, such as Papua New Guinea, where a missionary group, Adventist Aviation, has said it can now reach remote communities with twice as many passengers and three times the cargo load than they could with other aircraft. XSTOL was a new product category , said Pacific Aerospace chief executive Damien Camp.

"We've defined XSTOL as an aircraft that can land and take off in less than 800 feet (243m) carrying a load greater than its own empty weight." The company has five XSTOLs already operating in PNG and another five on contract to the United Nations in Africa and one recently delivered to Nepal.

The plane -- originally designed for skydiving and agricultural aviation -- sells for $US1.8m, and cruises at 308kmh. The low-wing, single turbine plane is powered by a Pratt and Whitney PT6 engine and can haul a combined 2008kg of cargo and passengers,

The company has had the model certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration, at a cost of $US11.5m.

The company plans to take the plane on from Oshkosh for demonstrations through South America and the Caribbean, finishing the promotional tour in Miami next November.