Ibis Aerospace has fully opened the flight envelope for its Ae270 single engine turboprop, having recently completed flights to the maximum planned altitude.
The company is now confident that the first of 50 orders for the utility aircraft will be delivered by October next year.
Ibis product support manager Clint Johnston says the second prototype has completed 175h of tests during 188 flights at Aero Vodochody's facilities outside Prague, Czech Republic. Johnston says that "the focus for the next few weeks will be performance calibration for takeoff and landing".
The US Federal Aviation Administration has been working in tandem with the Czech airworthiness body, although the FAA is thought to have some additional parameters to evaluate before the eight-seater receives US certification. Czech approval is due in July with the FAA following suit two months later.
Ibis, a Czech-Taiwanese joint venture, says it now has "very close to 50 orders" following the appointment of new dealerships in Australia and South Carolina, USA.
Source: Flight International
