Cirrus Design's The Jet is a next-generation aircraft planned as a transition from the Cirrus SR22.
The jet is not intended to compete with very light jets like the Eclipse 500 and the Cessna Citation Mustang. It is intended for the personal use market and will be comparable to the Diamond Aircraft Industries D-Jet. It will have a parachute, as all Cirrus have, and will be made of a composite material. Certification expected in the next few years.
Cirrus is currently taking $100,000 deposits for the jet. Initially, as a public relations exercise, the company gave deposit holders a drawing of the jet in the form of a jigsaw puzzle, one piece at a time. On June 28, the entire puzzle was completed, and the Cirrus Jet configuration was unveiled.
The Jet will seat seven people. The cockpit will have two seats, and the second row will have two seats as will the third row. There will be a seat that can slide between the second and third row. The Jet will have two doors, and the parachute will be located in the nose.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Cirrus - The Jet
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Reaction Engines' A2 Jet Flies At Hypersonic Speeds
British aerospace firm Reaction Engines is currently working on a hypersonic aircraft that would herald a new era and bright future for commercial air travel at Mach 5 speeds.
With 50 per cent funding by the European Union, or about US$14 million, this project, if successfully launched, could slash travel times drastically, so a flight from Brussels to Sydney would take only about a little over four hours.
Codenamed the LAPCAT, short for Long-term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies, Reaction Engines has designed an A2 configuration jet with a seating capacity for 300 passengers that makes use of its in-house Scimitar engine which runs on liquid hydrogen.
Not only is this jet environmentally friendly, it is easy on your pocket as well, as the company expects average ticket prices to be comparable to the price of a Business class ticket today.
Monday, February 11, 2008
First Supersonic Private Jet
The first unit has just been purchased by Sheikh Rashid, the ruler of Dubai. This bird will be able to fly the Ellisons, Jobs and Gores of this world from Paris to New York in just over 4 hours, so even while it has a $80,000,000 price tag, there will be no demand problems for it.
The aircraft specs are amazing: Thanks to its design, the Aerion Supersonic Business Jet will be able to cruise at 1.15 Mach over land without producing any boom on the ground. The plane can also keep a 0.98 Mach speed offering a similar cost-per-mile than competing subsonic private jets and complying with US regulations.
Over water, however, you will be free to speed it up and sustain 1.5 Mach with ease. To give you an idea, at this speed the Aerion can cross the Atlantic in two hours (it has a 4,600 miles range over 45,400 pounds of fuel) thanks to its Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 engines.
Unlike the Concorde, which could only fly to certain airports through the world because of its operative requirements, this supersonic jet is designed to comply with environmental, sound and airport regulations everywhere.
For example, the Aerion can land in just 3,460 feet, which makes it usable in most airports and a prime candidate to be Larry Ellison's next private plane. Design-wise, the Aerion looks even better than the fastest turboprop private plane. At least, it looks stunning except for the color.
But hey, for $80,000,000 I'm sure they will be able to deliver it in secret-plane black with alien markings. The Aerion Supersonic Business Jet will be delivered in 2014, so you only need to decide if you want to spend $250,000 now for one of the forty "early delivery positions" or wait a couple more years to get it on a Black Friday, just like the rest of us.
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