Nascent business jet manufacturer Sino-Swearingen kicked off a European sales drive yesterday, with promotional events in London to celebrate the SJ-30-2 long range light jet’s cabin certification.
The SJ-30, which started life on teh drawing board in 1986, received one of the final stages of its path to full certification late last week when the US Federal Aviation Administration approved its interior configuration (pictured below) and flights into known icing.
The aircraft, which has a range of over 4,500km (2,400nm) received its type certificate in October and has had a team from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) validating the FAA data since December on track for a first quarter 2007 European approval. Sino Swearingen, a Taiwainese-American joint venture still has to receive certification for its final assembly facility in San Antonio, Texas and fuselage and wing factory in Martinsburg, West Virginia before it can ship its first production model, planned for June.
Ahead of this EASA certification the aircraft designer Ed Swearingen led a promotional tour organised by the Williams FJ44-2A-powered aircraft’s distributor for Europe, Middle East and Russian satellite states, Action Aviation. Action Aviation holds 159 of the 300 total deposits taken by the Sino Swearingen has sold on 14 to end customers. Mike Creed, Action Aviation’s sales director for new aircraft says he expects to take at least half of the production rate of the aircraft for the 66 countries covered by the distributorship.
Creed expects sales to “ramp up” following FAA certification, with strong interest coming from former Soviet central Asian republics interested in an “affordable” small aircraft with range to reach Western Europe. The $6.2 million twin jet can reach 3,000km with full 7-seat load, or 4,625km with two pilots and two passengers.
“There is no competition at this level for an all-complete fly-away price. It’s a cut-throat business at the bottom end of the business jet market, but we have the range that no-one else has,” says Creed.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON
Flight International magazine will flight test the SJ-30 in its European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition special edition, out on the newsstands in two weeks.
Source: Flight International
