Cirrus Design, maker of the popular SR22 piston single, has taken the wraps off its first jet - which it calls simply "the-jet" - and Flight correspondent Jeff Decker was there. We have all been wondering where the single Williams turbofan would be located - in the fuselage, like Diamond's D-Jet, or at the base of the fin, DC-10-style, like the Piper Jet?
Well it seems the designers looked elsewhere for inspiration. Cirrus chief executive and co-founder Alan Klapmeier gives a nod to Northrop's iconic V-tailed Global Hawk UAV - but I see echoes of Heinkel's He162 , a German single-engine jet fighter that emerged late in the Second World War. Sometimes referred to as the Salamander, the He162 was called the Volksjaeger, or "People's Fighter", because it was designed to be simple, cheap and easy to build in large numbers.
Well "the-jet" is designed to be easy for an owner to fly (more a jet-powered SR22 than a small business jet), at "around $1 million" is relatively affordable in aircraft terms and Cirrus is hoping to build them by the hundreds.
the-jet, by Cirrus
the He162 (NASM photo)
Comments (1)
Whoa! Are they going to call it the SR-162? A single-engine jet with a vee tail? They're going to need to open more law and medical schools...
Posted by Paul Richfield | July 9, 2007 3:22 PM
Posted on July 9, 2007 15:22