Aero: Cirrus First Production Jet Ready for Flight

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As Cirrus tends to the final details of its certification of the SF50 Vision Jet, the first production model is within days if not hours of its first flight, according to Pat Waddick, Cirrus president. Speaking at the Aero show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Thursday, Waddick said four test aircraft have accumulated some 1700 hours and the test articles are completing the final stages of function and reliability testing and the type inspection authorization from the FAA.

In a long-form podcast we’ll publish later today, Waddick said Cirrus can’t say when the first deliveries will be made because the company is still working on the FAA’s schedule. But the first four Vision Jets are on the production line and nearing completion. Waddick said the Cirrus order book totals 600 and that it expects to deliver about 50 airplanes during the first full year of manufacturing, with 125 jets a year as the eventual production goal. The current price of the SF50 is $2 million, to include the CAPS whole-airframe parachute that’s a trademark of the Cirrus piston line.

AVweb and other news outlets recently reported that because the CAPS isn’t considered a required safety system and isn’t needed in lieu of spin certification, as it was for the SR line, the company isn’t required to do extensive flight testing. However, Waddick showed test video of a full-size, full-weight mock-up SF50 under canopy after the test aircraft was dropped from a helicopter. Initial CAPS testing was done from a race car on a track. The SF50’s unique automatic flight control system will be an integral part in the CAPS deployment sequence and will intercede to pitch the airplane into slower flight if the pilot commands a deployment outside the system’s airspeed envelope.

The helicopter deployment, Waddick said, was done in a near vertical attitude at a speed between 120 and 130 knots. The canopy itself is quite large; 88 feet in diameter and 6000 square feet. Waddick said it will have a vertical descent speed equal to or a little less than the systems used on the piston SR line. The jet’s seats are designed to absorb vertical loads to protect passengers from injuries.

When asked if he’s comfortable with the jet system having been tested less than the piston CAPS was, Waddick replied that it actually has been tested to the same standards, although it likely won’t be deployed from an actual flying jet. He said the drop tests gave Cirrus equivalent test data so tests on the actual aircraft aren’t needed.

“These systems are highly complex. We happen to agree with FAA’s special conditions. We need to demonstrate its intended function and that doesn’t cause a hazard in normal flight,” Waddick said. He believes Cirrus’ tests have achieved this.

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