With an eye to attract Middle Eastern customers, BAE Systems and Design Q have unveiled their latest concept for the Avro Business Jet (ABJ).
The new ABJ Elegante is aimed at the customer "who appreciates the space and grandeur of the larger VIP aircraft but requires a regional product for everyday use", said BAE. "On entering the aircraft the generous cabin is immediately on show creating an instant feeling of space."
Among its many features Elegante boasts a dining area that can be used as a work area. Information screens are embedded into the surface with power supply for laptops and a central pop-up communication centre.
A fully converted ABJ of this level, said BAE Systems Regional Aircraft technical sales executive Chris Sedgwick, is that "it can be put on the ramp for $12-15 million, or the cost of a much smaller midsized business jet, and certainly for considerably less than a new-build regional jet conversion".
He added that the large cabin means an interior arrangement "close to that of a Boeing Business Jet" can be accommodated "so the ABJ can be a useful complement to the bigger aircraft for shorter journeys, or to access difficult, short or unpaved airfields".
Elegante is the fourth of five interiors commissioned by BAE from Design Q to meet different VIP aircraft market segments. The first two, ABJ Explorer One and Explorer Four, were unveiled at EBACE 2010 and the ABJ Fusion for the luxury charter market was unveiled at the NBAA convention in October 2010.
Source: Flight Daily News
