The Royal Air Force (RAF) is planning the sale of Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA), A DARA spokesperson has said a review committee would make recommendations which could include a private equity buyer. The review is scheduled to finish by the middle of this year, although completion could be put back further. Robertson said the review committee is poised to hire outside consultants 'who know the Carlyles of this world'. Carlyle, the US-based private equity group, owns 31% of Qinetic, the part-state-owned group which conducts most of the UK Ministry of Defence's non-nuclear research.The spokesperson said that although DARA had no intellectual property assets, its civil aviation maintenance business has commercial potential. DARA posted a profit of £10.2m on £189.5m sales for the year to April.