OSHKOSH -- In 1997, Mike Van Staagen was imagining aircraft concepts for a personal jet. Like many big ideas, it started as a sketch on a napkin. The early concepts looked like a mini DC-10 rather than the v-tail Cirrus Vision SJ50 we see today.The aircraft dubbed 'V1', flown by former US Navy test pilot Tim Berg, took to the sky on July 3rd at 9:47 AM for its 45-minute maiden flight.
"It's a fairly unconventional design, so it was a relief to have it fly. I couldn't have been more happy," said Van Staagen, who serves as Vice President for Cirrus Design's Advanced Development Group.
Though the road to first flight was not without its challenges to tackle. On the day of its would-be first flight, the aircraft was parked outside for the first time for a three-hour run on its fanjet.
During the course of that day, two issues arose that would scrub plans for the SJ50's maiden flight. First, the aircraft developed a slight fuel imbalance prompting last minute troubleshooting, as well as weather that didn't inspire confidence in flight safety. The first flight would have to wait one more day.
Since it took its first steps, the newborn Williams FJ33-4A-19 fanjet powered aircraft has amassed 25 hours in the sky, not including its most recent flight from Duluth, MN to Oshkosh, with a stopover in nearby Wausau.The early flight tests have been used to ring the bugs out of the electronics, verify operation of the data acquisition system and gain basic flying familiarization for the pilots in the flight test campaign.
The goal for the early flights was to prove that the SJ50 could make it safely to AirVenture.
So far, Cirrus has flown the aircraft to an altitude of 16,000 feet and has reached speeds up to 208 knots. On the other end of the spectrum, the aircraft has flown as slowly as 78 knots with partial flaps in straight and level flight.
What's AheadAfter the maroon, silver and white N280CJ departs Oshkosh, it will begin to explore the edges of its flight envelope. For Cirrus, the V1 flight test vehicle will be one-of-a-kind, serving as the technology demonstrator, rather than a production aircraft.
The company won't be seeking FAA certification on V1 because of its
non-conforming design, though Cirrus has already held
pre-familiarization meetings with the FAA ahead of a formal
commencement of the certification program, which is expected to begin
this fall. The company expects to complete certification within three
years for a first delivery by 2011. Already, Cirrus has begun to adjust the design for its production SJ50. For example, winglets will not be included on the aircraft, after it was found that they provided no tangible benefit to justify the weight and wingspan increase of the aircraft.
Cirrus continues to work with its jet advisory team, as well as COPA (Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association) to refine the design. For example, the original double large door design will be replaced with a single large door on the left side of the aircraft. Emergency egress on the right side of the aircraft will now be achieved through a window plug. The benefit is a reduction in weight and maintenance costs by eliminating a second pressure-sealed door.
Within the next year, Cirrus will learn more about its new jet design and have a better idea about providing firm pricing and delivery dates to customers. The company already has garnered around 500 refundable deposits on the aircraft at $100,000 each, and expects 200-300 more before the year is out. Though, Van Staagen adds that, "backlog [before launch] is not the goal, we already know the market is there."
The next prototype will be a conforming article, with assembly commencing during the middle of 2009 with first flight in early 2010. Cirrus expects to begin making supplier choices for production over the next year, and hopes to build upon its previous composite production experience with the popular SR20 and SR22 aircraft to enable a production ramp-up to 250 aircraft per year.
Challenges
The biggest challenge facing the SJ50 program comes in the form of weight. Cirrus has implemented more aggressive weight control program for the SJ50 to achieve a "G3 maturity" at entry into service. 'G3' refers to the generational iterations of its SR20 and SR22 aircraft that were aimed at reducing weight and improving aircraft performance.
Van Staagen said that he's given the "get the weight out" speech to his design team four of five times already, emphasizing that it is everyone's job to reduce weight wherever possible.
Cirrus wants to keep the aircraft as close to a competitive price of $1
million as possible. As a result of the weight reduction, the company
has opted to reduce the capabilities of the aircraft in order to
maintain simplicity and performance. Though the final performance goals
of the aircraft are not yet frozen, Cirrus hopes to allow the SJ50 to
fly 1,000 nm with a medium load at a cruising altitude of 25,000 feet
and 300 knots.Technology is foundation for the future
The number of players in the personal and very light jet market is growing rapidly. On top of Cirrus, entrants from Cessna, Honda, Eclipse, Piper, Diamond, Epic and Excel have already arrived, or are making their way, to market. Making all of this possible is an explosion of engine platforms from Pratt & Whitney, Williams and Honda.
Though, he adds that the fuel efficiency is still a hurdle in achieving ideal performance. Van Staagen believes the technology has room to grow making it is still attractive enough to push forward with developing a fanjet-powered aircraft.
On the avionics side, Cirrus has partnered with Garmin to provide the proprietary Cirrus Perspective based upon the G1000 platform. The goal of the joint venture was to bring additional simplicity and manage an inherently complex airplane by providing more intuitive controls and easily accessible information in a clean format.
Van Staagen underscores that all the ingredients for a successful personal jet are now in place, though the road will be filled with obstacles and challenges.
His task now is to deliver what Cirrus sees as the, "ultimate embodiment of personal transportation."
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