Site Home : Flying : One Article
For the purposes of this article, a "very light jet" is one that weighs less than 10,000 lbs. and costs less than $4 million.
The numbers: NBAA IFR Range 1,150 n.m.; cruise speed 340 knots; full-fuel payload of 800 lbs. Cabin volume of 230 cubic feet is substantially larger than Eclipse's 160 and smaller than the Phenom 100. By the book, the Mustang requires a minimum 3,100' of runway for takeoff (accelerate-lose-engine-stop). The cost is approximately $3 million and they have been coming off the assembly line since December 2006.
I have flown the Mustang for 1.5 hours, including some single-engine work, and flown a Level D Mustang simulator for about 0.8, during which time engines failed and caught on fire. With no formal training, I can't say that I handled the emergencies gracefully, but it was much easier than handling a piston twin with a sick engine. For one thing, in a jet you don't have to identify the failed engine. Just fly the airplane and manipulate both throttles (one power lever per engine instead of three!). When you get up to altitude and the autopilot is engaged, then you can run a checklist, look at the alert messages, and decide if you want to attempt a restart or shut an engine down. An instrument-proficient single-engine piston airplane pilot with 400 hours should not have any trouble transitioning. Going from no jet time to being single pilot-in-command would probably take a trip to Flight Safety, a year with a mentor pilot in the right seat, and then another trip to Flight Safety.
How about comfort? The cockpit is spacious, more so than on some of the bigger Cessna jets, with ample headroom and legroom for a 6' tall pilot. The four seats in the back are arranged in a club configuration. Four adult males would have to negotiate leg and foot positions to avoid knee contact (plan trips of 1.5 hours (500 n.m.) or less with four adults in back, unless they are very close friends). With the typical light jet business passenger load of 2 adults, the plane is very comfortable. The windows are large and positioned just right for a 6' tall adult to look out without craning his or her neck.
Operators so far seem happy with the 100+ Mustangs that have been delivered. At NBAA 2008 a meeting of owners revealed that many have not had a single squawk with the airplane, even after round-the-world flights. How are they selling in this Depression? Not too well. In theory Cessna is taking orders for the end of 2011 at a price of $3.145M. In practice the only Mustangs that sell are for near-term delivery and usually at a discount from the $2.8M 2009 retail price.
Cessna's parent company, Textron, is in deep financial trouble, with the entire company worth only about $1 billion. Credit default swaps on Textron indicate that investors believe the company has roughly a 50 percent risk of going bankrupt within two years.
Also on this site: full review of the Cessna Mustang.
In mid-2008, the Eclipse 500 was limping its way to full certification. The avionics were half-finished, very few airplanes were certified for flight into known icing conditions, and the tires needed to be replaced after every 25 landings. The company raised the price for new orders to $2.15 million.
A charter company in our helicopter hangar was operating four Eclipse jets. Most of the time at most one was in flyable condition. Due to the lack of antiskid brakes and the fragility of the tires, the plane could not be operated with confidence on a runway shorter than 5000', i.e., a runway long enough to land a Gulfstream. Real-world IFR range is closer to 700 n.m. than the originally promised 1800 n.m.
The Eclipse is advertised as being very quiet inside and operators report that it is, subjectively. However, the plane measures roughly 4 dB noisier than the Cessna Mustang or CJ3. With the ventilation fans on low in cruise at FL270, cabin and cockpit levels were both 82 dBA. This is about 6 dB quieter than the better piston-powered aircraft.
I have not managed to talk my way onto an Eclipse flight, but have sat in the aircraft. Exterior and interior finishes are excellent. The front seats are very comfortable for a 6' tall pilot (me). The rear portion of the cabin seems smaller than that of a Piper Malibu/Meridian and it was impossible to sit without my knees brushing up against the seat in front. If the plane had 1300 n.m. IFR range, were certified for known ice, and could land on short runways, it might have been a nice four-seat personal airplane. Pilot-owners sit in front, kids or another two adults sit in the back; dog and bags occupy the space that formerly held the middle seats.
In March 2006, I visited the Eclipse factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The sales people and pencil pushers were remarkably arrogant, a startling contrast to their relatively humble counterparts at Cessna and Embraer. The employees on the shop floor were not smiling and having fun cooperating, as I've observed at the Diamond factories in London, Ontario and Austria.
The four-seat single-engine Eclipse 400 was announced in mid-2008 for delivery in "late 2011" at a price of 1.35 million June 2008 dollars. The design promised high fuel efficiency, possibly as little as one pound of jet fuel per nautical mile, or just under 10 mpg, a little better than an SUV if you consider that the jet flies point to point and does not sit in traffic jams.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2008. All assets were to be sold to a Russian-European group. Customers who had paid deposits of up to 60 percent but never received an airplane would be wiped out. Customers who took delivery of airplanes would have no warranty. That turned out to be an unrealistically rosy scenario. In fact, the company closed up shop in February 2009 and disappeared legally in March 2009. This leaves an orphaned fleet of 259 slightly broken airplanes.
Bigger cabin, faster cruise, similar fuel burn. Has Embraer rewritten the laws of physics? Not exactly. The wing of the Phenom 100 is a more sophisticated design than that of the Mustang. Sophisticated is good if you want to cruise with low drag. Sophisticated is bad if you want to fly slowly with forgiving handling characteristics. The Phenom requires landing speeds about 5 knots faster than the Mustang and consequently requires about 10 percent more runway.
Deliveries began on December 30, 2008. The handful of owners report being very happy.
Embraer is in serious financial trouble, with credit default swaps implying a 20 percent risk of bankruptcy within the next two years. Embraer is in better shape, however, than most other business jet manufacturers because it has a near monopoly on the regional jet market and significant support from the Brazilian government. The company has also benefitted from the rise in the U.S. dollar, in which it prices its airplanes. Embraer will receive 20 percent more in local currency for each airplane than it expected.
Take-off distance is 3120'; landing in 2500'.
Scheduled for delivery in 2010 at a price of $3.65 million. Honda is a great company, but even great companies have been humbled by the challenges of aircraft certification. Problems usually translate to delays, cost overruns, and a creeping empty weight that reduces payload. High risk due to the innovative design and the fact that Honda has never before made airplanes.Honda is having some financial trouble. Its partner on the engine, GE, is in terrible shape. The market for new jets could not be worse. Expect deliveries to be delayed.
Cruise speed is 360 knots and range is guaranteed to be at least 1,300 n.m. Piper doesn't say if this is NBAA range, which includes a 100 n.m. flight to the alternative, so it might not be any longer range than the Eclipse, et al. Cabin size seems to be sensible; six seats plus an optional lav opposite the door (Pilatus-style).
The price will be 2.2 million 2006 dollars. Operating costs should be lower than a twin-engine plane. Even prior to the world economy melting down, Piper's financial strength was questionable compared to the competition. Piper has not certified a new airplane since the Malibu in 1984 and has never built a jet. Certifying an airplane requires millions of dollars in capital... and then another pile of millions when the first pile is exhausted. A good rule of thumb in this economy is that an airplane that isn't certified right now is probably never going to be certified.
The D-Jet will cruise at 315 knots, carry a total of five people, and operate from 2500' runways. Gross weight is 5,110 lbs. Range, not specified as NBAA, is claimed to be 1,350 n.m., but only if you're willing to slow down to 240 knots. The air intakes are mounted at the inboard leading edges of the wing, which would appear to make them very susceptible to foreign object damage.
The price was $1.38 million (2005 dollars?), but a big increase is expected in 2008, partly due to a switch to a larger variant of the Wiliams turbofan engine. Operating costs should be low. The D-Jet first flew in April 2006 and customer deliveries were planned for mid-2009. With the usual snafus attendant upon aircraft development plus the tough economy, the Diamond Web site isn't making any promises about certification or shipment.
Diamond is not in as bad shape financially as other piston aircraft manufacturers because much of their business is flight training fleets.
In response to the Collapse of 2008, Cirrus has eviscerated its piston airplane engineering and production staff, trying to preserve its capital for the jet. The company will need additional capital, however, to get through certification. Cirrus's Kuwaiti and Saudi owners are wealthy, but they've been hit by falling oil prices. Completion of this program is in doubt.
One advantage of Adam, if indeed the A700 is ever certified, is a large cabin, comparable to the Embraer Phenom 100. On the other hand, Embraer pushes airliners and business jets out the door every week while Adam issues misleading press releases, e.g., claiming that the A500 was certified when in fact the FAA wouldn't let it fly above 12,000' or at night or in the clouds or... Anyway, as of May 2007, Adam is promising certification and delivery of the A700 in 2008.
June 2008 update: Adam filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy in February 2008. Its assets were purchased by Russian investors in April 2008 and they plan to revive the design.
March 2009 update: Adam disappeared long before the rest of the world economy failed.
Their Epic Elite jet sounds even better: supposedly 1700 lbs. of payload can be carried 1600 nautical miles; cruise speed is 410 knots; pressurization of 8.5 psi (cabin altitude of 8,000' at 41,000').
Epic's ambitions would be laughable if not for the following:
More: www.epicaircraft.com
March 2009 update: The Epic Web site contains no updates newer than August 2008. Nothing has been written about Epic in the media.
ATG offers a two-seat $3 million military trainer-style jet with swept wings. Cruise speed is 500 knots with a claimed IFR range of 1,000 n.m. The company asked me to become an investor back around 2003. I asked who would buy a two-seat super high performance jet? "Real estate investors going to look at properties," was one reply. I asked how many real estate investors wanted to limit themselves to looking at properties that were near 10,000' runways (the claimed stall speed in landing configuration is 88 knots) and how many real estate investors were former fighter pilots.
What are the issues with becoming a civilian fighter pilot in an ATG Javelin? Runway length is a huge one. You won't have access to most U.S. airports, but only those designed for big or fast jets. The stall speed of the Javelin will likely result in landing speeds and runway length requirements close to those of a Boeing 737. Two-pilot airline crews regularly operate 737s from 6,000' runways, but you would have to ask yourself what your personal minimum should be. For anyone not fresh from the military or the airlines, insurance is unlikely to be available.
Alternative: overhauled L-39 Albatros with fresh avionics for $300,000. You see these Czech-built single-engine military trainers on a lot of ramps out West. Usually a few local rich guys have partnered up on one and they fly it without insurance. Specifications include a stall speed of 91 knots and a "range" of 971 nautical miles (plan on 700 maybe). According to Wikipedia, there were 257 flying in the U.S. in March 2006. You can buy the newer L-59 for under $1 million.
June 2008 update: ATG filed for Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy, leaving behind debts of close to $100 million and wiping out investors who put in up to $50 million.
By mid-2009, assuming no major teething problems, the "best overall VLJ" title appears like to pass to the Embraer Phenom 100.
Among the twin-engine jets, the Cessna and Eclipse will fly the slowest and therefore will probably be the safest.
The VLJs will be cheaper to operate in the long run since the latest turbojet engines have many fewer parts than the venerable PT-6 turbines in the standard turboprop.
First, the VLJs that can go to FL410 will not be in the way of airliners because airliners tend to most efficient in the mid-30s while the VLJs achieve their maximum range up at FL400 and FL410. The VLJs that are limited to FL250 will not be in the way of airliners; the 20s are empty of all but Piper Malibus and the like (we once were cleared direct from Nebraska to Bedford, Massachusetts in the middle of a weekday at FL250).
Second, eventually the FAA will upgrade its software and systems to allow airplanes to fly great circle point-to-point routes. With point-to-point routing, there will be so little enroute congestion that some people have proposed letting the airliners' onboard TCAS systems resolve what few conflicts are likely. A 1996 New York Times article on this idea noted that "the F.A.A. [is] famous for missing deadlines" and, indeed, the agency does not seem to have set itself any deadline for eliminating the 1950s jet route system and accompanying software.
The FAA's last attempt to upgrade its software cost $9 billion, took 20 years, and was entirely scrapped. This is generally regarded as the most expensive civilian software project failure in history.
For now... the Embraer Phenom 100.