Cirrus Aircraft’s long journey to certification of the industry’s first single-engine personal jet culminated with FAA type approval of the SF50 Vision Jet nearly 10 years after the program's launch.
The FAA ceremoniously presented the type certificate for the SF50 to senior Cirrus executives at the NBAA Convention in Orlando, Florida, yesterday as the company celebrated a milestone that allows customer deliveries to begin in December.
Cirrus quietly celebrated the achievement the night before at an intimate gathering at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando attended by several early position holders, including airshow star Michael Goulian and baseball hall of famer Ken Griffey Jr.
“What an amazing and impactful day for Cirrus Aircraft and the entire aviation and aerospace industry,” said Cirrus Aircraft CEO Dale Klapmeier. “Just as the SR series of high-performance piston aircraft has forever changed aviation, the impact of the Vision Jet on personal and regional transportation is going to be even more profound. Never before has a turbine aircraft solution come along that rewrites the rules in so many ways — iconic design, ease of operation, smart economics, simplified ownership and more.”
The $1.96 million Williams-powered jet will reach buyers at a rate of about one a week. The Duluth, Minnesota, company has about 600 orders for the jet, many of them from pilots moving up from SR-series piston airplanes, production of which has been held to 300 airplanes a year.
The fresh type certificate means big expansions for Cirrus, both at its main factory in Duluth and at its new customer delivery center in Knoxville, Tennessee, where pilots new to the SF50 will undergo initial type rating training.
Cirrus has created the Vision Jet as an easy step-up for pilots flying the SR22. It features sidestick, flap and throttle controls that will be intimately familiar to them. Training at first will be conducted in the airplane, and later transition to full-motion simulators, complete with Garmin G3000-based Perspective Touch avionics, in Knoxville.
The Vision brings capabilities that Cirrus customers have long coveted, including a pressurized cabin and max operating altitude of FL 280, a 300 ktas max cruise speed and a 1,266 nm max range.
Look for a full pilot report in an upcoming issue of Flying.
