Cirrus says it is working with Garmin to develop a customised version of the new G3000 integrated avionics suite for its SF50 Vision five-passenger single-engined jet, with a panel design "that will put everything in the right spot".
Garmin introduced the new avionics suite, its most ambitious system to date, at the National Business Aviation Association's annual convention in October. As designed, the G3000 includes 14.1in (36cm) main displays and smaller touchscreen centre-panel units for controlling flight management, weather, synoptics and other vehicle systems. Launch customers included Honda for the HondaJet and Piper for the PiperJet.
 |
|---|
© Cirrus |
Cirrus says synthetic vision will be standard equipment on the avionics, as well as dual WAAS-enabled GPS, three-axis autopilot, traffic alerting and XM weather. Along with an enhanced vision system, options will include an on-board weather radar, says Cirrus.
The company has pushed out indefinitely first-delivery targets for the $1.72 million Williams FJ33-powered single, citing the poor economic climate.
"We don't know when [the SF50] will be done," says company president and chief executive Brent Wouters. "We've developed a variety of timelines depending on when and how the cash infusion comes." Wouters says engineers will work on "design elements" until the money comes, pushing off high dollar items like the building of production tooling, robotic assemblies and inspection systems until later.
Accomplishments to date include boosting the maximum flight altitude to 28,000ft (8,535m) from 25,000ft, a change that Cirrus says, when matched with the SF50's projected cruising speed of 300kt (555km/h), will help the jet compete with more expensive offerings like the twin-engined Cessna Mustang.
Wouters says all concept designs are complete for the aircraft and preliminary design reviews are complete for 55% of the systems. He says the company has released requests for proposals for 21 of the 22 systems, and that 14 of the 22 suppliers needed to build the personal jet have been selected.
Cirrus says that by 27 January it had 482 position holders for the jet, with Wouters adding that "one or two new orders" have been arriving every week.
Source: Flight International
