Adam Aircraft is transitioning from development to production at its Denver facility, where a fresh leadership and manufacturing team is testing the A700 very light jet and producing the A500 piston twin.
The A500 received its US Federal Aviation Administration production certificate in September, and the $2.25 million A700 is also on track for certification by the European Aviation Safety Agency. Chief executive Rick Adam believes demand from western European customers for the A700 could match that from US customers. “We think the VLJ is almost an ideally perfect product for western Europe. They have roughly a 1,500 mile [2,400km] range, and western Europe is roughly 1,500 miles north to south and 1,500 miles left to right,” he says.
The aircraft will be there to meet demand, he predicts. “It’ll be a gradual, controlled, business-like ramp-up. I think it’s possible that when we get to 150 a year, the market will actually be a little stronger than that, so we can take it north of that if the market holds up.”
Production in 2008 will be three A500s a month and then between three and 10 A700s a month thanks to improved tooling.
EBACE is an important part of that sales plan, and it is the young company’s third year at the show. “When we go to EBACE our sales and marketing team tends to be very, very busy,” Adam says, adding that back orders are at 375. “I think EBACE is a great show.” He adds: “On the jet side we’re contemplating affiliating with some large jet service centres and we’re also contemplating putting up some Adam Aircraft-owned service centres, but we don’t have final decisions on that yet. We’re also looking at putting up service centres in Europe,” Adam says.
The 16 service centres for the A500 also service Cirrus aircraft, which have the same Continental engine and Avidyne avionics. “They researched the market and picked, we just followed the same guys they went to,” says Adam. Cirrus does not yet make a jet and the new service centres will follow a different model.
The engines on the A700 are two Williams FJ33s. They propel a 6.95m (245ft3) cabin, which Adam says is an attractive feature. “We are the second cheapest in the category, just ahead of Eclipse, but we’re the biggest space-wise,” he says.
“Customers don’t see the unique shape. What they see is a tremendous amount of cabin space for the dollar.” That space also allows for a standard lavatory. “We certainly have the biggest lav in the area, and some don’t even have a lav, so I think for a lot of buyers that’s a big selling point.”
Sales may also have been helped by the inclusion of an Adam 500 in last year’s Hollywood feature “Miami Vice”.
Testing is on track to get the A700 in customer hands. The first two A700 prototypes have accumulated over 800h of risk reduction testing. The third jet had first flight on 9 April, and Adam says the fourth and fifth will be flying this year.
The route to full capacity production is straight ahead, and Adam Aircraft has wrapped up a hiring blitz to oversee it. In December it brought in a new senior vice-president of engineering and programme management and a vice-president of flight-test engineering.
Hiring continues on the manufacturing floor. The company says: “We’ve had the hiring and the capital resources, and now we’re getting the tooling and the production lines up and moving.”
Source: Flight Daily News
