The Cirrus Jet is certified as of today and will be delivered in December. I think this qualifies as the first legitimate personal/family turbojet-powered aircraft. One-engine-plus-parachute and a service ceiling of FL280 (about 28,000′) are not so exciting if you have a two-pilot crew who fly a couple of times per week. But what about the regular private pilot who wants to take the family to the beach? The pilot who doesn’t want to spend two weeks every year maintaining proficiency at managing various emergencies, especially the failure of one engine while in instrument conditions? The Cirrus Jet is the first turbojet that could be as simple as a four-seat piston-powered plane. (The rest of the very light jets are about as difficult to operate as larger jets and therefore haven’t caught on as expected; if you’re going to do all of that training why not tow 8 seats behind the pilots instead of 4?.
Anyway, I’m grateful to Cirrus for bringing this to market and especially grateful to the Chinese owners of Cirrus who were willing to fund it!
[Oh yes, and what about the price? I think the paperwork says $2 million but, as is typical in aviation, that might be in 1946 dollars that have to be adjusted for inflation. Then there are mandatory options. I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual wire transfer is about $3 million, which is one reason people will be saying “I can get a used twin-engine plane that goes to FL410 for half that.”]
Related:
- “Pipistrel Plans 19-Seat Hydrogen Hybrid”: Slovenia-based Pipistrel has signed a $550 million deal with Sino GA Group Co. of China to build its Alpha Electro electric trainer and hybrid-powered Pantera high-performance aircraft in China. And while that’s significant in itself, it’s Pipistrel’s plans for the money it will earn in the project that is bound to raise eyebrows. “Pipistrel will use a part of the mentioned amount also for the development of a new, very innovative zero emission 19-seat aircraft, powered by hybrid electric technology and hydrogen low temperature PEM fuel cells…
To me the most interesting feature of the SF50 is that it has a computer doing flight envelope protection, which probably provides more safety than its (untested) parachute. Hopefully more (all?) manufacturers will start including this too.
Airbus and Boeing have been doing it for years!
Chinese aren’t always that consistent. They bailed out of building 8000 apartments on Treasure Island in 2011, exacerbating our Soviet style housing shortage. Of course, if central planners didn’t inject $4 trillion into mortgages in 2008, the housing shortage wouldn’t be as severe.