In the November/December 2006 issue of Canadian Aviator, we looked at the six frontrunners in Very Light Jet market. In this edition, some less known but equally ambitious and visionary projects are examined.

Aviation Technology Group, ATG
If there’s a student to have walked into the VLJ class sporting a metaphorical mohawk, then ATG is that attention-getter. Their outrageously evocative Javelin is the dream machine for those who have always believed they are fighter jock material.

It’s a “hot rod with wings,” some literature states and in comparison to all the others, few could argue against such a claim given the aircraft’s departure from other VLJ designs. The Javelin is every bit a fighter wannabe, with performance pushing its envelope into territory that makes this package look like a military toy. In fact, a military version, complete with ejection seats and other hardware is being developed along with the civilian model.

First flown in the early autumn of 2005, it’s been aggressively put through its flight testing paces, with design tweaks put forth to make it more docile so as not to push it beyond the piloting talents of its future prosperous owners. Two FADEC-controlled Williams FJ33 fanjet engines, at 1,800 lb thrust, push the needle-thin design to an altitude of 41,000 ft in 17 minutes. Cruise for the Javelin is 500 KTAS, about 150 kts faster than most of the rest of the field.

Carbon fibre is used throughout this sky demon’s structure, contributing to its minimal empty weight of 4,655 lbs. Maximum gross is 6,900 lbs, with 200 lbs of luggage and 280 gallons of fuel. It will stall, in landing configuration at 86 KCAS, approach for landing at 105 kts, take you a distance of 1,000 nm and max-out in time at 3.5 hours.

The Javelin will accommodate your golf clubs en route, with its respectable amount of cargo space. If truly there is a comparative performer for looks and appeal available for private Top Guns, it comes in the from of the L-39 Albatros, several hundred of which are flying in civilian hands. The Albatros is heavy and a kerosene guzzler compared to the Javelin but, with a sticker price of $3 million for the next round of orders, the Javelin comes with a pricetag that exceeds the former Czech trainer by close to a factor of 10 — and that’s a lot of Jet-A.

Certification is anticipated by the end of 2008 for this Colorado-based VLJ player. Already the company has evolved the design into a military trainer in conjunction with Israel Aircraft Industries. Though marketed for business or pleasure, this aerial thoroughbred seems the perfect fit for military training where it looks to belong. Beyond that, for the profile of one destined to have one, look for the guy pulling into the airport driving a Lamborghini Diablo.

Cirrus Design
The goal that Alan and Dale Klapmeier set with their fledgling company was to revolutionize general aviation through the use of technology and training. While some might argue that the undeniable success of the company’s line of piston-powered, glass panel and parachute-equipped aircraft was evolutionary rather than revolutionary, it remains a fact that Cirrus sold its first airplane a bare seven years ago and now makes more four-place piston singles than anyone.

What to do for an encore? Ironically, that’s the very question asked in a slick little marketing package sent to 1,500 pilots worldwide last October, all built around taking $100,000 deposits for “the jet”, Cirrus’s long-anticipated and still, as of this writing, closely guarded next-generation aircraft. What’s even more telling is that the company, which overcame a torrent of nasty, dismissive nay-saying as a start-up company, is asking prospective jet jockeys to put up their hundred grand based on faith and little else. The package didn’t even have a drawing.

“Put your confidence in Cirrus and we will deliver to you a personal jet that will exceed your expectations,” says Alan Klapmeier in the promotion package. “It will be astoundingly beautiful to look at and exceptionally fun to fly.”

There are some key words in that promotion. This is a personal aircraft (some say the plane the Klapmeiers have wanted for themselves all along) and there is no mention of air taxis, point-to-point charters or business productivity increases. This one’s for you.

Details on performance have also been scant. Alan Klapmeier once told a news conference it would be the “slowest” small jet on the market and the company is only saying that it will fly faster than 300 kts. Altitude will be limited to 25,000 feet (certification requirements are much more demanding above that) and it will have a range of about 1,000 nautical miles.
Cirrus isn’t even saying how many seats it will have, although some extrapolation base don its choice of the Williams FJ33-4A-19 engine, with its 1,900 lbs of thrust, invites speculation that it will be significantly larger than its four-place piston stablemates.

The Diamond D-Jet has five seats and is claiming a cruise speed of 315 kts from an FJ-33-4 engine with just 1,400 lbs of thrust. Since Cirrus is not concentrating on speed, the only place to put that extra power to work is on payload and the modest endurance projection suggests the emphasis is on people and their luggage.

There are conflicting reports on exactly what stage of development “the jet” is actually in. While Cirrus officials suggest a flying prototype won’t be ready for some time, others suspect a surprise flypast will occur at a major aviation event sooner rather than later.

Piper Aircraft
For years, the rumour around central Florida has been that beleaguered Piper Aircraft had a plywood mock-up of a revolutionary jet design that was just waiting for the right combination of moxy and marketability to pull aviation’s hard-luck case  — with three hurricanes, a devastating engine recall and labour problems — back into prominence.
Well, they’re either very good at keeping secrets in Vero Beach or Piper has been hard at work on a clean-sheet design that turned heads at its announcement at the National Business Aviation Association convention in Orlando last October.

Take the smooth lines of a Cessna Citation and put the engine in the eminently practical location of the vertical stabilizer, and the result is a surprisingly nice looking airplane with utilitarian advantages over some of its competitors.

Most small jets mount two engines on horizontal pylons on the empennage. Single designs almost invariably put all that noise and vibration under the cabin floor. Each design compromises cabin capacity and comfort. With the engine far up on the tail, the six-place executive version of the PiperJet can be boosted to seven seats in an air-taxi configuration with the removal of the private lavatory.
Piper announced at AOPA Expo in November that it would use a Williams FJ-44 engine for the jet. At a little more than $2 million, the PiperJet is 40 per cent more expensive than some of its competitors but Piper President Jim Bass said they’re looking at the high-end market, something reflected in the expensive finish materials and interior design.

Piper is claiming its jet will cruise at 360 kts at 35,000 feet for 1,300 nm but it won’t be able to do that with all the seats full as fuel payload is only 800 lbs.

Excel-Jet Ltd.
Perhaps the most dashing entry into the VLJ scene has been the arrival of the slick Sport-Jet.

Unfortunately, it has also departed the scene, thanks to what appears to be wake turbulence from a regional airliner. But while the prototype was a write-off after cartwheeling off the runway at its Colorado Springs test centre, both pilots on board walked away virtually unhurt thanks to the roll cage design of the cockpit.

The accident validated the strength of the aircraft. Its full carbon fuselage did a tenacious job ensuring the survival of its occupants while the rest of the aircraft absorbed the energy of the crash.

Up to the point of its accident, flight-testing had gone smoothly, with performance numbers begging to exceed expectations. Normal cruise is set to be 345 KTAS, with a rate of climb of 3,000 ft/min. Most airports should not present restrictions to operations, as Sport-Jet is claimed to require 2,300 ft runways for takeoff, with 1,800 ft necessary for landings at speeds forecast to be in the 80-knot range.

It is configured closer to the specifications of Diamond’s D-Jet, as both share a single Williams FJ33 fanjet as their means to scoot them along at their operational ceilings of 25,000 ft. Sport-Jet’s mid-wing design has a MTOW of 4,800 lbs out of which 760 lbs is permitted for a full-fuel payload to carry yourself and your stuff. Its IFR range is slightly shy of 1,000 nm at a burn rate on the more frugal side of 40 gal/hr of Jet-A.

To avoid the VLJ moniker, Excel-Jet insists that their aircraft is a PLJ, reinforcing the focus of their marketing plans. Its cabin class four-place layout and simplified design, is aimed squarely at the general aviation piston pilot, as much to favour operational simplicity as to cater to underwriters who’ll be required to insure this class of aircraft.

Their goal to develop an aircraft “that the insurance companies would support” has been a main concern from their start-up,  notes accomplished Excel-Jet founder, Bob Bornhofen. The Sport-Jet is designed to offer maximum performance in the context of an affordable, insurable package. Certification is projected for the end of 2008 with a price of about $1.2 million.

Maverick Jets
With none other than legendary test pilot and air show performer, Bob Hoover, acting as spokesman spreading the word of their product, it was hard to ignore the presence of Maverick. Though it appears that their association no longer exists, Maverick can still turn some heads on the grounds of aviation shows, it’s just harder to find them hidden amongst the bigger players.

They claim to be builders of the first personal jets, an assertion with which some may take issue, but regardless of the validity of the statement, their personal experimental jets have been flying for years, although not very publicly. Now, they’ve taken the step towards certification, lining up to get papers for their twin-engine SmartJet while keeping their single-engine SoloJet as a custom-built aircraft for enthusiasts.

At five seats apiece, the word at this time is that the certified version will be less than $1 million while the custom edition will run to $1.25 million and be equipped with a BRS parachute. Maverick comes by its good looks honestly. They were also designed by Bornhofen, which left Maverick Jets to form Excel-Jet in 2003.

Specs on the SmartJet are theoretical since it hadn’t flown as of the fall of 2006. No engine has been announced, but there are plenty of options available to meet their plans for a rate of climb of 2,800 ft/min, a cruise speed of 277 KTAS, a range of 1,250 nm at a fuel burn of 36 gal/hr. In contrast, the custom-built SoloJet is earmarked for a Pratt & Whitney JT15-5, offering 3,190 lb thrust, which should have little trouble firing this bullet towards its projected rate of climb of 8,000 ft/min, speed of mach 0.82 and range of 1,200 nm.

Aircraft Investor Resources, AIR
AIR’s turboprop Epic LT attracted attention two years ago by going from clean-sheet design to flying prototype in less than a year. The following year at EAA AirVenture, the company announced a jet based on the LT, both of them as kit-built aircraft. The company recently announced plans to certify both designs in Canada AIR will be building and certifying their Elite VLJ (as they will, also, their turboprop Dynasty) at Springbank Airport in Calgary through a new set-up called the Canadian Centre for Aircraft Certification (CCAC). CCAC is a division of the Canadian Centre for Aerospace Development (CCAD), which has been designed to provide testing, evaluation and certification services for general aviation aircraft. The CCAC facilities, designed specifically to accommodate research and testing of advanced composite construction for aircraft, will result in the Epic Elite being the first VLJ to take advantage of the CCAC program.

AIR’s entire certified manufacturing will be moved to Springbank, leading to the Elite VLJ’s type certificate coming from Transport Canada as opposed to the FAA. Reciprocal agreements between the two countries will hasten the Elite’s certification south of the border, giving this Bend, Oregon-based company a more seamless and unencumbered route to their aircraft’s ultimate availability to customers, projected to be 2009.

AIR’s intent, like other builders in class, is to capture customers whose missions require four to six seats, pressurization, space, comfort and speed. Rick Schrameck, the company’s founder, is certainly no stranger to pushing the limits of speed, as he once held a FAI record from taking a Lancair Legacy to 345 mph while racing in Reno, NV. A biochemist by training and wide-ranging innovator in business, watching the development of Rick Schrameck’s plans from the base of its novel Canadian source is yet another component to ogle amid the jigsaw of diverse VLJ makers.

Spectrum Aeronautical
The Spectrum 33 came out of the blue in more ways then one when Linden Blue, a former CEO of Beechcraft and Learfan, revealed the existence of his company’s VLJ prototype on the eve of its maiden flight. It caught most in the industry off-guard.

The news was impressive to start with, not least given the known business acumen of the company’s man at the helm. His business experiences not being limited to the aviation empires as mentioned above, Linden Blue is also vice-chairman of General Atomics, makers of Predator UAV’s, and a leader in composite aircraft manufacturing. Spectrum’s chief engineer, Dan Cooney, held this same title during an extensive sojourn at Scaled Composites where technology and innovation stick to the walls of the hallways at the famed Mojave research and development facility. Putting these two together to create an advanced all-composite jet in full secrecy would, in all hindsight, seem the least one would expect given the industry-wise seasoning upon which each has built his respective reputation.

Rocky Mountain Composites is a third major factor in the equation at Spectrum, having pioneered ways to build economically viable composite aircraft that will improve the cost-benefit ratio for customers. The amalgam has brought about a proprietary manufacturing process, using a carbon graphite material they call fibeX that will see Spectrum’s 33 burn half as much fuel for the same speed through its two Williams FJ33-4 turbofan engines, as will the aircraft it sees as its direct competition, Cessna’s CJ2+ business jet.

Spectrum, with its 10-occupant capacity, is also 40 per cent lighter than the CJ2+, its prototype will get off the ground in an astonishing 800 feet, climb to 45,000 ft in 20 minutes, cruise in excess of 400 KTAS, carry more useful load over an IFR range of 2,025 nm and cost half the price to own and operate.

It all sounds too good to be true and the tragedy is that the company suffered as terrible a setback as could hit it, with the destruction of its flying prototype from which it was validating its evocative performance parameters. During a routine flight test, a misrigging of an aileron linkage provoked an uncommanded roll of the aircraft resulting in a loss of control upon takeoff, and the deaths of its two occupants in the destructive accident that ensued.

The aircraft had been aloft for 46 previous test flights prior to the July 2006 accident. Spectrum has gone on record to say they’ll carry on development of their projected $3.6 million aircraft, with a second prototype expected to be flying by early 2007. A realistic target for certification may yet be possible for later in 2008.

Spectrum has also announced development of a larger version of the aircraft called the Freedom S-40. A mockup was displayed at AOPA Expo last November.

Synopsis
Some might question whether Spectrum technically belongs in the same locker room as other VLJ players in the game. With 10 as its occupant capacity, their aircraft is pushing the loose boundaries of what a VLJ is expected to be and, with Cessna’s CJ2+ identified as their direct target market, they may be pursuing a different clientele.

Then again, the same could be said of Embraer’s Phenom 100 which can be configured to accommodate 8 in a Very Light class that’s defined, as a general rule, to max out at 6 occupants. That said, Embraer also have in the works a Phenom 300 which drops the “very” from the “Very Light Jet” designation, and breaks into another class altogether known simply as the “Light Jet” category. Sino Swearingen with their SJ30, and Grob with their SPn Utility Jet also fall into the new Light Jet lot. But it’s often market that determines a class of airplanes.

Eclipse’s Vern Raburn describes five markets for his VLJ aircraft. Owner-operators will come in the form of non-pilots up through to fully experienced, multi-engine, IFR pilots. Raburn says corporate aviation will look towards VLJs for cost savings. Flight training units will also add VLJs to their fleets when tailored programs become necessary to teach advanced cockpit and turbofan skills. What Raburn calls “air logistics” — best described as FedEx type services where time sensitive items must be delivered within tight deadlines — are a potential market. Finally, the air taxi case awaits its big breakout because, in the words of Vern Raburn, “it just makes sense” in these times of onerous security measures, delayed airlines and circuitous hub-and-spoke routing.

The main question that remains is which designs will survive?