GRAHAMWARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
At least six entry-level business jet programmes are under way - with promise of more on the horizon - but will there be room for them all?
Microjet, personal jet, entry-level jet, light jet - whatever they are called, there are suddenly a lot of them around. Too many, probably, for all to succeed, however optimistic their market forecasts for this lightest end of the business-jet spectrum.
The microjet craze could be said to trace its origins back to Cessna's 1989 launch of the CitationJet as a return to the light and simple concept of the original Citation 20 years earlier. The CitationJet set the entry price for business jets - $4 million for today's iteration, the CJ1 - and so created a yawning gap between piston twins and light jets. Some companies have tried to fill that $3 million-plus gap with a turboprop single, such as EADS Socata's TBM 700, but with only limited success.
The first "serious" attempt to bridge the gap with a jet was the $2.2 million VisionAire Vantage, which was fatally innovative in two respects: it was single-engined and it had a composite airframe. While it flew a proof-of-concept aircraft in 1996, built by Burt Rutan's renowned Scaled Composites and powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada's proven JT15D, VisionAire struggled with technical and funding problems, and eventually went the way of many other general aviation start-ups. Having spent $110 million, and having failed to raise the $120 million needed to complete certification, the company was liquidated in January with debts of $35 million.
If one company can be said to have created the mould for the microjet it is Eclipse Aviation, but the Eclipse 500 is not quite the same machine that exploded on to the general aviation (GA) scene in March 2000. Then the aircraft was powered by two Williams International EJ22s, priced under $800,000 and deliveries were to begin this year. After a rocky period late last year following the aircraft's first flight, when the company changed engine suppliers and delayed certification, Eclipse appears to be back on course, completing its final fund-raising round in July. The Albuquerque, New Mexico-based manufacturer has raised $325 million, which it believes will be enough to complete certification and begin production.
The Eclipse 500 is now powered by P&WC PW610Fs, priced at $1.2 million, and certification is due in early 2006. Delays caused by the engine change have cost Eclipse its market lead, but the aircraft still has a price advantage over its growing number of competitors. There are now at least six entry-level business jets on the market - and more on the horizon.
If Eclipse created the microjet market, then Cessna gave it credibility when it launched the Citation Mustang in September last year. Priced at $2.6 million and powered by P&WC PW615Fs, the all-new Mustang will be certificated in mid-2006. It is larger and heavier than the Eclipse, making it more entry-level jet than microjet, but the target markets are similar - owner/operators moving up from piston twins and older turbines, and air-taxi operations.
Three other light-jet projects are targeting 2006 for first deliveries, with varying degrees of credibility. Safire Aircraft says it has funding in hand to get past the first flight of its $1.4 million, Williams FJ33-4-powered Safire Jet in the first quarter of next year, after which the Opa Locka, Florida-based company expects to find raising the remaining funds required easier.
Latest entrant
Avocet Aircraft is the latest to enter the field, taking "pre-orders" for its $2 million ProJet. The Westport, Connecticut-based company is working with Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) to complete definition of the aircraft, aimed at the high-utilisation air-taxi and fractional ownership sectors rather than the personal jet market, by mid-October. Certification is planned for late 2006, but IAI's involvement is key. The Israeli aircraft manufacturer is to decide by mid-2004 whether to join the ProJet programme as a risk-sharing partner responsible for certification and production.
Austrian manufacturer Diamond Aircraft, meanwhile, is forging ahead with internally funded development of its D-Jet, an all-composite single-engined jet priced below $1 million. The manufacturer of light piston singles and twins recently selected the Williams FJ33-4 over the P&WC PW615F to power the D-Jet, which is due for certification early in 2006.
Surprisingly, first to market in the entry-level category looks likely to be start-up Adam Aircraft Industries, whose A700 light jet is derived from the A500 all-composite piston twin now in the final stages of certification. The $2 million, FJ33-powered A700 first flew in July, and Englewood, Colorado-based Adam is targeting certification for the end of next year. Unlike Cessna, Eclipse and Safire, which are projecting production rates in hundreds of aircraft a year, Adam says it need only sell 100 a year - 50 A500s and 50 A700s - to be profitable.
Forecasts of a market for several thousand entry-level jets are based on the long-foreseen need to replace the thousands of high-performance piston singles and twins and older turboprops and light jets in service. There is also a widespread belief that the availability of aircraft costing less than today's business jets will lead to growth in the air-taxi market. While deposits and orders - over 2,000 at Eclipse, 700 at Safire and 300 at Cessna - suggest the forecasts may not be over-optimistic, too many manufacturers may be chasing the market.
As well as Adam, Avocet, Cessna, Diamond, Eclipse and Safire, there are others - serious and speculative - waiting in the wings. Cirrus Design, which recently became the first GA start-up to deliver 1,000 aircraft - has a single-engined jet on the drawing board, but says development is at least two years away. New Piper Aircraft, which completed a recapitalisation in July, is studying a twin-engined light jet, but also says any launch is at least two years hence.
Mooney Aircraft, rescued from bankruptcy earlier this year, harbours light-jet ambitions, but has abandoned plans to acquire the rights to Century Aerospace's CA-100, which was unveiled in 1998 as a $2.6 million, FJ33-powered twinjet - although later foundered for lack of funding. Aerostar Aircraft has abandoned plans for the FJ-100 derivative of the Piper Aerostar piston twin, having failed to raise the $50 million needed to certificate the $2.1 million, FJ33-powered twinjet. The company is looking for ways to fund internally a cheaper jet derivative of the Aerostar.
Other projects
There are other projects on the fringes of the entry-level market. Englewood, Colorado-based Aviation Technology Group (ATG) is trying to raise $130 million to certificate the $2.2 million Javelin, a two-seat twinjet modelled on a modern fighter. Melbourne, Florida-based Maverick Jets has simply avoided the cost of certification and is marketing its FJ33-powered Leader twinjet as a kitplane.
Japanese car manufacturer Honda, if it decides to enter the light-jet market, is potentially a more serious competitor, although the US-designed HondaJet would be at the top end of the entry-level market. A prototype is scheduled to fly in Greensboro, North Carolina, by the end of this year, powered by Honda-developed HF-118 turbofans, With a maximum take-off weight of 4,175kg (9,200lb), the HondaJet is larger than Cessna's Mustang, but smaller than the Citation CJ1. The aircraft has a composite fuselage and metal wing, natural laminar flow forward-fuselage and wing, and overwing-mounted engines.
Engine technology has been key to the emergence of entry-level jets. Initial impetus was provided by Williams' NASA-sponsored FJ22, a 700lb-thrust turbofan that promised to be smaller and cheaper than any other business jet engine available. As the EJ22, the engine was central to Eclipse's plans to produce a personal jet costing less than $1 million - so much so that, early in the programme, Williams was to be responsible for design and certification of the aircraft as well as the engine. The task of developing such a small turbofan proved too difficult and, after just one flight, Eclipse terminated its agreement with Williams on the EJ22 and began the search for a new, more powerful engine.
Head-to-head
By then, Cessna had entered the field with the Mustang, conducting a powerplant competition between Williams' FJ33, a scaled-down derivative of the FJ44 powering the CitationJet family, and P&WC's all-new PW600. In January, the 1,350lb-thrust (6kN) PW615 won through. A month later, Eclipse announced it had selected the 900lb-thrust PW610F, and P&WC became overnight leader in the small-jet market. The company ran a PW625F demonstrator in 2001, but the new engines will not be available before late next year, which fits Cessna's plans to fly the Mustang in mid-2005, but has forced Eclipse to delay certification to early 2006. Meanwhile, flight testing of the first Eclipse 500 has resumed with surrogate drone engines.
Williams has put the FJ22 on the backburner, continuing with technology development but with no plans for certification, and is focusing on the FJ33. After its reversal of fortunes with Cessna and Eclipse, the engine company has come back strongly, and the FJ33 has been selected to power three of the six entry-level contenders.
Adam's twin-boom A700 is powered by two 1,200lb FJ33s mounted on the rear fuselage. Diamond's D-Jet will be powered by a single 1,400lb-thrust FJ33-4, while Safire has selected a 1,100lb-thrust version of the same engine to power its twinjet. ATG's Javelin, if it is ever built, will also be powered by the FJ33-4, certification of which is planned by year-end.
Safire, like Eclipse, originally tried to break the business-jet mould by going for a non-traditional engine - selecting the 800lb-thrust TF800 developed by Agilis Engines - a small West Palm Beach, Florida-based engineering company - to power its S-26 personal jet. In February 2000, Safire announced it had executed a purchase agreement for 1,000 engines. The thrust requirement was later increased to 1,000lb, and the Agilis engine redesignated the TF1000, but last year Safire reopened the competition to the FJ33 and PW600. In February, the company selected the 1,100lb-thrust FJ33-4, and in April it unveiled the redesigned, more capable, but also more expensive Safire Jet.
Honeywell has participated in at least some of the entry-level jet engine competitions with the LTF101 - a proposed turbofan derivative of its LT101 turbine family - but has yet to be selected.
The personal jet market has broken with tradition in at least one other area - avionics. While the majority of business jets have integrated avionics suites from one of the big two manufacturers - Honeywell or Rockwell Collins - the new lights jets have broken ranks. Eclipse selected newcomer Avidyne, teamed with BAE Systems, to develop the Eclipse 500's Avio integrated avionics and aircraft systems management package. This set the standard for systems to follow, with large liquid-crystal displays (LCD) - two primary flight displays (PFD) and a central multifunction display (MFD) - autopilot, autothrottle, flight management system with aircraft performance computer, and a full suite of sensors and radios, plus weather radar. The basic elements of the Avio system are already flying on the first Eclipse 500. While Eclipse may have paved the way, it was Cessna that grabbed industry attention when it selected Garmin's G1000 integrated avionics system for the Mustang. This was a blow to Honeywell, which has long supplied the avionics for Cessna's lighter products, and which had offered its latest Apex integrated avionics suite for the Mustang.
The G1000 is a comprehensive suite, fronted by three large-format LCDs - two PFDs flanking a central MFD. The system includes digital autopilot, air-data computers, attitude and heading reference systems, and integrated communication/navigation/datalink radios and GPS receiver, Mode S transponders, terrain awareness warning system and weather radar.
Integrated flightdeck
Avidyne's FlightMax Entegra integrated flightdeck, meanwhile, has been selected for the Adam A700 and Safire Jet. Both will feature two large-format flat-panel PFDs - each with an integrated solid-state air-data and attitude/heading reference system. Diamond has selected Entegra for its DA40 DiamondStar, but has yet to announce the flightdeck supplier for the D-Jet.
So far unsuccessful in penetrating the entry-level jet market, Honeywell has retargeted development of its Apex system towards turboprop and light-jet retrofit applications. Goodrich was also pursuing the light end of the market with its SmartDeck integrated avionics, but early this year sold its Avionics Systems division to L-3 Communications. No SmartDeck applications have been announced.
In airframes, engine and avionics, light-jet manufacturers are breaking new ground. But, while the outlook is positive, questions remain over the ultimate size of the entry-level market, and how many manufacturers it can support. Owner-fliers moving up from pistons to jets face insurance issues, and the emergence of a robust air-taxi market remains uncertain, But, for now, the light jet sector remains one of the few bright spots in business aviation.
Source: Flight International
