The city of Wichita Falls has dropped a lawsuit against Carter Aviation alleging millions of dollars in loans were never repaid, court records show.
Wichita County court records show a request for a “non-suit” was filed by the city’s Economic Development Corp. on May 6 and was granted the same day in 30th District Court.
The brief documents did not say why the lawsuit was dropped.
The order said the action against Carter was “dismissed with prejudice.”
In Texas that means the case is permanently closed and no further lawsuits can be filed. Court records also showed the lawsuit was dropped prior to heading for a trial date in October.
“The City has no comment on this matter,” city spokesperson Chris Horgen said in an email Monday morning.
The lawsuit was filed by the EDC in August 2025.
Carter owed the city more than $3.28 million in seven loans made to the company between August 2010 and June 2013, according to court filings.
The money was loaned by the EDC for land, buildings and aircraft research, development and manufacturing, the court documents said.
Among Carter’s proposed projects were development of personal helicopters to be manufactured here, according to an Aug. 6, 2009, article in the Times Record News. The company said it would bring 300 jobs to Wichita Falls.
The EDC renewed the loans in 2015 with a due date of June 12, 2022, with an agreement that the city would get 20% of certain patents Carter owned, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges the Carter companies “failed to make any payments and refuse to make any payments.”
The lawsuit asked for repayment of the principal amount plus interest of $296,391.
Carter told an EDC meeting on Oct. 20, 2022, that his company would soon have “a lot of money” but couldn’t pay its loan at that time, according to an Oct. 21, 2022, article in the Times Record News. Carter blamed the company’s money shortage on “dirty tricks played against us” by the military and others in the aerospace industry.
Carter filed a response to the lawsuit on Sept. 22, 2025, and denied all allegations.
The EDC receives most of its money for economic development projects from a portion of the sales tax collected in Wichita Falls. The City Council has final approval of its ventures.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Wichita Falls drops multi-million dollar Carter Aviation lawsuit
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News | USA TODAY Network
