While Cirrus is tight-lipped about the phasing of the first flight of its single-engined personal jet, video available from a new Cirrus owners website indicates the event is imminent, suggesting the possibility the company will fly the aircraft to the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture gathering in Oshkosh, Wisconsin the first week of August.
Eclipse chief executive Vern Raburn last year flew his single-engined jet, with similar features (V-tail with engine above the fuselage) as part of the AirVenture show in a surprise appearance.
Duluth, Minnesota-based Cirrus on 26 June announced that the Williams FJ33-4A-19-powered aircraft it called "V1" was ready for taxi tests. A temporary airworthiness certificate issued to the company on 10 June lists the model as the "SJX", according to US Federal Aviation Administration records.
"Earlier this week, the [Advanced Development Group] build team and engineers ceremoniously handed the keys over to the ADG flight-test crew," says the company's 26 June newsletter of "the-jet", Cirrus's original name for the project. "The flight-test team will now complete a very methodical process to ensure V1 is ready to fly safely and within very specific flight parameters set for the initial flight. Even at this critical stage the team is approaching its work and the impending flight schedule with the same careful diligence and thoughtful planning as they have from the onset of the programme," it says.
Three videos on YouTube, uploaded by "CirrusVillage", a group reporting to be a new on-line community for Cirrus pilots, show N280CJ (or V1), performing a static run-up, taxiing slowly with sections of the nose cowling removed, and again taxiing with the aircraft fully assembled, including an air pressure probe attached to the nose. The tests presumably take place at Cirrus's production facility in Duluth on 28 June.
Source: Flight International
