Diamond Aircraft has resumed flight testing of its D-JET personal jet after a five-month break. Diamond suspended testing in late March when it ran out of money to continue the project. It took until early June to secure new financing, including a well-publicized spat with the Canadian government over a federal loan that was ultimately denied. Diamond has not said who the benefactor is for the D-JET program although it has said the funding it received was specifically allocated to the jet.
The first flight, using serial no. 003, was mostly a systems shakedown to make sure everything works after the storage period. The flight was uneventful and paves the way for a resumption of the full certification flight-test program with two test aircraft. The company will also build a production conforming aircraft. “Our team’s spirits are certainly lifted with the resumption of flight activities” said Diamond President Peter Maurer. “Being able to bring back part of the team allowed us to resume flight operations and we are looking forward to finishing the campaign with 002 and 003, while in parallel finalizing detail design work and starting the production of conforming aircraft 004.”
