A TWIN-ENGINE kit-built aircraft costing under $20,000 is expected to be available for sale from August.
Zenith, US producer of the Zodiac family of kitplanes has launched the CH620 Gemini twin-engine kit, in anticipation of opening a new market, aimed at second-time kit builders. The Gemini will share many of the features of its single-engine stable-mates, including an all-metal airframe and bubble canopy.
The company says that flight testing of the first aircraft should begin in June and it expects to be able to take sales deposits at the Experimental Aircraft Association's fly-in at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in August. Full kits, which will be manufactured at Zenith's Mexico, Missouri, plant, will be delivered from about April 1997, although partial kits will be available earlier.
The Gemini is expected to have a 130kt (240km/h) cruise speed. The Australian-designed, 60kW (80hp), air-cooled Jabiru 2200 engines will cost around $7,000 each, Zenith says.
"It's not given that there is a market for a twin-engine kit. We are something of pioneers in this," says president Sebastian Heintz, "but we like doing new things and we feel the time is right. The kit industry is now pretty mature and there are a lot of people looking to build their second aircraft, but they want to upgrade to something new. We think they will be attracted to the extra reliability of a twin-engine aircraft."
Heintz adds that the recent availability of lighter, less costly, engines makes it feasible to launch the Gemini now.
Source: Flight International
