If the Evektor EV-55 Outback looks like a scaled-down L-410, that is no coincidence. Several of the brains behind the in-development Czech twin turboprop – which flew for the first time in 2011 and as a production-conforming test example this April – spent their formative years with the L-410’s manufacturer, Aircraft Industries (previously Let Kunovice). Evektor is also the formerly state-owned company’s next-door neighbour on the airport in the Czech village of Kunovice, in a farming region near the Slovakian border.
Like the almost five-decades-old L-410, the EV-55 is a rugged, metal, short take-off and landing design, aimed chiefly at mixed cargo and passenger markets in remote parts of the world. However, the nine-seater is considerably smaller than its Czech mate, and – with a price tag of $3 million – likely to be less than half the price of the latest version of the L-410, the NG. The L-410 has General Electric (formerly Walter) H series engines, but Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-21s power the EV-55.
The aircraft are also at very different stages in their evolution. While Aircraft Industries has sold some 1,200 L-410s and has high hopes for its re-winged, re-engined NG – which it aims to have certificated next year – the EV-55 is just starting. The programme appears ambitious from a company that has been building aircraft since only the late 1990s, albeit a highly-successful ultralight, the EV-97 EuroStar and its US light sports sister, the SportsStar. Once in production, the EV-55 will be the first all-new Czech civil aircraft since communist times.
Evektor is hoping to have the aircraft certificated in 2017 and a somewhat limited flight test programme is in progress – two aircraft will fly about 200h this year, taking total hours to more than 500. “We plan to finish development flights this year and move onto the certification process next year,” says the company’s deputy director Petr Sterba. But taking the next step could be trickier. Although Evektor is understood to have secured enough investment to complete certification, it still needs to raise funds to begin full production.
The company – which is controlled by three Czech aviation veterans, Jaroslav Růžička, Libor Duchtík and Josef Vávra – was set up in 1991 as a consultancy advising on privatisation projects following the Velvet Revolution. It moved into design engineering, handling projects for the likes of Aero Vodochody and Skoda, and in 2014, after around 15 years of producing its ultralight range, it secured a minority investment from a Malaysian company backed by the country’s former premier Mahathir bin Mohamad.
These investors provided funds to launch the flight test programme in earnest. On 8 April, the first conforming aircraft – serial number 3 and registered OK-DRM – joined an earlier prototype, which had been flying under the approval of the military authorities before gaining EASA approval. Evektor has also produced a ground-test article, serial number 2, and will add a full-scale fatigue example later this year. Detailed evaluation has begun on the aircraft’s flight systems, flight characteristics and engines, says Sterba.
Evektor is pitching the aircraft at operators of ageing piston-twins such as the Cessna 421 and Britten-Norman Islander, as well as the smaller Cessna Caravan single turboprop, although the company believes the type’s PT6A engines will give it more speed, range and short take-off and landing capability. With nine passengers, Evektor is promising a range of 800nm (1,480km) and a take-off distance in standard conditions of 410m, with a landing distance of 520m, making it ideal, it believes, for remote runway operation.
Sterba admits customers are unlikely to opt for the unpressurised EV-55 over similarly versatile blue chip types such as the Pilatus PC-12 and Beechcraft King Air. “We are a lot less expensive, so we don’t expect to go up against them,” he says. Instead, the main market for the aircraft is likely to be operators looking for a sturdy but economical workhorse for out-of-the-way environments, including in Asia, who do not need the capacity or range of a larger turboprop such as the L-410 or Viking Twin Otter.
Although an interior has not yet been installed, standard layout in the 5.02m x 1.61m cabin will be five and four seats with a cargo compartment divided from the main section by a semi bulkhead. A double door at the rear – the same size as the L-410’s – allows for bulky items to be loaded with ease, says Sterba. Four-blade propellers are made by Czech firm Avia, with landing gear by Aero Vodochody. Evektor is also promising a full glass cockpit, although the flight test examples have a hybrid flightdeck.
While it is a flagship project for Evektor – and a symbolic one for Czech industry – the EV-55 is not a do-or-die venture for the company, which employs 370 people across several sites in the country. As well as its ultralight/light sports range, the company has had an impressive roll call of clients for its engineering and rapid prototyping business. It worked on the design of the new wing for the L-410 NG, and is responsible for elements of the Airbus A350 and A380, as well as the Boeing 747-8, through Spanish aerostructures firm Aernnova.
Automotive remains a major market too, particularly Czech car maker Skoda. Earlier this year, Evektor’s engineering services business opened a research and training centre in Kvasiny in the north of the country, near Skoda’s own development facility. The site will focus on developing special modifications and prototypes for sport and law-enforcement, and will include testing capabilities that the company says “have been largely missing in the Czech Republic”. Evektor hopes to attract business from other customers too.
When it comes to aircraft manufacturing, Evektor has certainly proved its mettle – albeit on a smaller scale – producing some 1,500 ultralights for aero clubs and private use, as one of around four Czech companies specialising in this area. Evektor was the first to achieve the then-new US light sport approval in 2005. Although output has eased from the sector’s pre-2008 glory days, Evektor is still turning out between 40 and 50 of the Rotax-powered 450-600kg twin-seaters a year, and the types remain what the company is best known for.
That could change if Evektor manages to get the EV-55 into production. So far, promotional activities have been limited by budget and the faltering progress of the project, and the company has not announced formal orders. However, Chinese construction group Longhao gave the programme a boost last November when it announced a “strategic cooperation agreement” to buy 50 EV-55s, and Sterba says Asia will be a key target for Evektor once its sales and marketing efforts properly get under way.
Kunovice and adjoining town Uherske Hradiste may not be the aerospace hub it was in the 1980s, but with two separate aircraft developments under way in adjacent factories, it holds the key to the Czech Republic’s future as an aircraft manufacturing nation. As a compact twin turboprop, the EV-55 stands in a class of its own. Whether there is sufficient demand in the world’s emerging aviation markets for such an aircraft to attract the funds to take it to production and long-running success remains to be seen.
Source: Flight International
