The Sino Swearingen SJ30-2 flies in the face of conventional business jet wisdom in almost every respect. While the rest of the industry is firmly convinced that passengers demand the greatest possible amount of cabin space and simply won’t endure a cramped cabin for very long, the SJ30 delivers coast-to-coast range at a cruise speed of 440 knots in an airplane with the smallest cabin in the category.
The belief that some people want to go as far and as fast as possible for the money, no matter how small the cabin, stretches back 20 years to when Ed Swearingen announced development of what he then called the Swearingen Fanjet. The airplane would take advantage of a brand new compact engine from Williams and would have 1,800-nm range cruising at Mach .72. The initial price in 1986 was set at $1.6 million, which was below the leading turboprop twins available at the time.
