People have called it a Malibu with a jet engine stuck on the back. I wouldn't disagree. It's pitched at a very different market though, so comparisons are unfair.
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People have called it a Malibu with a jet engine stuck on the back. I wouldn't disagree. It's pitched at a very different market though, so comparisons are unfair.
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It's a beautiful aircraft - at the top end of the new very light jet sector. HondaJet has the actual aircraft on a rotating area, as well as a cabin mock-up which people have been queueing to get into.
The Japanese car maker - unknown in the business aviation sector before it announced plans for the HondaJet a few years ago - has clearly pitched its product at the aspirational end of the market.
]]>At most air shows, visitors and journalists are treated at best as sheep or a group of 10-year-olds on a visit to the zoo and at worst as potential terrorists by surly security goons or dim-witted, ill-briefed staff. It's invariably unbearably hot or cold and damp. Food is overpriced and nasty. You can never get a taxi.
Here, everything is designed round the visitor and the journalist's life is made easy. The food and coffee is free and delicious. The security staff are charming grandmotherly types who look as if they might offer you some of their home-baked sponge cake as they usher you past. Registration could not be simpler. There are no bag checks, no queues, no jobsworths. The Orlando Orange County Convention Centre is light, roomy and wonderfully air-conditioned. You can even get a complimentary massage or shoe shine.
And in Orlando, or the other cities which host the convention, there are plenty of good, reasonably-priced hotels, just a 10-min ride from the centre.
Orlando's not my favourite city. Unless you are here with kids, it has all the charm of a shopping mall. But it's clean, safe and built around the visitor.
All in all, coming to NBAA is a pleasure more than a chore.
]]>The military-looking VLJ - which is also marketed to the defence market as a trainer - has its detractors and sceptics. But ATG has taken 109 deposits for the $2.78 million aircraft and says it still has a "few" slots left at that price.
The military version has an ejection seat and a few other gizmos. Will the Javelin civilian version be offered with ejector seats? "The FAA doesn't go with rockets too well," says Bye.
]]>I was at the Eclipse press conference a few hours ago. After years of waiting, the first Eclipse 500 is about to be delivered. Now I'm at the Adam Aircraft event where air taxi operator Magnum Jet inked a deal for 101 A700s, one of the most quirky designed aircraft around.
I've written before about how the economics of VLJs have the potential to change not just business aviation but the way we do business in almost the same way as the mobile phone or the PC. Read my feature on air taxis in the 10-16 October issue of Flight International. With very different aircraft and very different air taxi start-ups emerging, it's going to be a fascinating marketplace over the next two or three years.
]]>Embraer has approached this market in a very cautious way. While its main focus was on developing the 170 and 190 families of regional jets, it quietly began establishing itself in the business aviation market with the ERJ 135-based Legacy.
It waited to achieve credibility in the industry before launching the Phenom 100 and 300 very-light and light jets. It was a bold move but few doubted the Brazilian company's ability to get the Phenoms through certification and make a significant mark in the market.
Then, at EBACE in May, Embraer announced the Embraer 190-based Lineage, aimed at the ultra large-cabin market dominated by the Airbus ACJ and Boeing BBJ.
Speaking at the company's press conference on Monday, Botelho said: "We launched a low-risk product, the Legacy, and learned from it. Then we addressed the lower end of the business. Just be aware that we want to develop in other markets - that's why we did the Lineage. We are learning and becoming effective. We want to become a strong player across the board."
]]>The Bavarian company has just been bought by the parent of its marketing partner on the SPn, Swiss-based ExecuJet.
The six-seater sells at $7.15 million and will enter service in first quarter 2008. The company is hinting at a big fleet order from the USA.
]]>There had been suggestions that the aircraft might be announced at NBAA, but diMase said the company is "fine-tuning the relationship with partners and putting financial arrangements in place".
Piaggio had been studying two designs: one a similar size to the six- to eight-seat Avanti and one larger, in the mid-size category. It appears to have opted for the latter.
I still think the Piaggio P180 is the sexiest business aircraft around. The twin-pusher just looks so different to anything on the market. Since it first arrived on the market in the late 1980s, Piaggio has been transformed from a basket case business with a beautiful product (the end of the Cold War took away its previously-solid defence revenues) into a top-performing manufacturer with a hugely-successful US arm. It has orders for more than 100 Avanti IIs and will deliver 24 this year.
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Cessna has a mock up here at the show and is looking for feedback from potential customers. A go/no-go decision will be taken next year, but don't expect to take delivery any time soon. Cessna's Roger Whyte says it will take five years from decision to certification. The aircraft - which would have an MMO of 0.86 and range of 4,000nm - would fit at the top of the range above the Citation X.
Raytheon is further down the line with the two new models it announced this morning, the mid-size Hawker 900XP and the super-light 750. NetJets is launch customer for both, ordering 30 750s and 18 900XPs at the show.
Why not take a look at Flight's Pocket Guide to Business Aviation - 2007.
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Flight Evening News is a unique product. Launched at NBAA in Las Vegas in 2004 and published at each NBAA and EBACE since, FEN is a sister product of Flight Daily News, and is the industry's only same-day show newspaper.
There's a slightly Disneyland feel about this year's NBAA convention too. Three years ago, this sector was on its knees as business aviation struggled following 9/11 and corporate scandals like Enron. Today, manufacturers are taking orders like ice cream merchants on a sweltering afternoon. In its annual forecast, Honeywell - which was back in 2003 predicting that the recent industry growth would be levelling off around now - is instead suggesting that business jet sales will smash the 1,000 mark for the first time in 2007. One of the big drivers is the growth in very light jets and air taxis (see our feature on this in the last Flight International). But bigger jets are also selling well too, with new markets such as Russia and India waking up to business aviation.
I'll be blogging from Orlando for the next three days as the show kicks off on Monday with press day and opens properly for business on the 17th.