Fairchild Aerospace's commitment to produce a family of corporate aircraft is steadily being realised with the Envoy 7 launch.
The widebody aircraft, a variant of the Fairchild Dornier 70-seat 728Jet regional airliner, which was launched earlier in the year, will join its smaller Envoy 3 stablemate which is now undergoing certification testing.
"We are committed to producing a family of corporate aircraft based on the regional models," says Fairchild. The San Antonio-based manufacturer also plans to launch corporate variants of its 50-seat 528Jet and 90-seat 928Jet regional aircraft, predictably titled the Envoy 5 and 9, at a later date.
"The success of the BBJ [Boeing Business Jet] and the Envoy 3 are the reasons we believe that the Envoy 5,7 and 9 will eventually become good ideas," says Fairchild president Jim Robinson.
The Envoy 7 cabin will be 2.1m (6.9ft) high, 3.3m wide and 17m long, and will provide space for a large conference area, business-class seating for 10 and a state room with en suite lavatory.
"The Envoy 7 is clearly positioned in the long-range market that has typically been dominated by Gulfstream, Dassault and Bombardier, but has almost twice the cabin volume of its closest competitors, says Fairchild's vice president of corporate sales, Craig Fahning.
The aircraft will be powered by two General Electric CF34-8D3s and have a range of around 7,770km (4,200nm), a maximum operating altitude of 41,000ft and a cruise speed of Mach 0.80. The complete aircraft, which will also be equipped with Honeywell's Primus Epic avionics, will be priced at "less than $30 million", although an introductory price of $28.5 million will be applied to the first 10 sales.
Fairchild is now building a completion centre at its San Antonio base, and is expanding its service centre to provide a turnkey service to Envoy customers.
The Envoy 7 is due for certification in late 2001, with first deliveries in the first quarter of 2002. The company anticipates sales of around 25 aircraft a year "throughout the life of the programme".
Meanwhile, the $13-million Envoy 3, which made its debut in mock-up form at the NBAA show, is on target for European and US certification in May and June 1999 respectively. First deliveries are planned by the end of August. "We have received 14 orders for the Envoy 3 so far, and we anticipate that around 25% of our total production capacity will go to this aircraft," says Fahning.
Fairchild also plans to coincide US certification with the launch of a fractional ownership programme. The manufacturer is now examining the possibility of setting-up an independent programme through its charter subsidiary, Merlin Express, or tying-up with another provider.
Source: Flight International
