S-26 Replaced With Larger Metal Aircraft

Safire Aircraft has announced specifications and details of its new personal jet. That means the original S-26 design (pictured below) will not be produced.

CEO Camilo Salomon first announced that Safire moved from West Palm Beach to Miami’s Opa Locka Airport on March 7, 2003, to prepare for the development and flight-testing program. He said city, county and state authorities have provided substantial incentives to help launch the program.

A Better Deal?

“Opa Locka is an ideal location for development and assembly of the prototypes," said Salomon. "The offices are directly adjacent to 30,000 sq ft of hangar space where the assembly of two flying and two static prototypes will soon begin. Our offices open directly into the hangar area and offer the ideal environment for the flight test program and certification of the new Safire Jet. Everything is running smoothly towards first flight early next year.” He added that hiring is now in high gear and the Safire engineering team will exceed fifty by the end of August - seventy by the end of 2003.

To speed up certification and allow a more flexible ramp up to higher rates of production, Safire has decided to become a “final assembly only” facility, rather than producing components and subassemblies themselves. “The concept is to share the risk and ramp up effort with a number of well-established aviation suppliers. We are negotiating contracts for major subassemblies with the most experienced and renowned companies in the industry. Once all the parts and components are delivered to us, we will begin assembling the first flying prototype. Procurement is in full swing and contracts for the main components of the aircraft have been signed,” said Salomon. 

Salomon noted that the selection of the Williams FJ33-4 engine announced last month came after many months of intensive investigations with Williams, Pratt & Whitney and Honeywell. “In the final analysis”, he stated, “it became very clear that the FJ33-4 is the only engine sufficiently developed to power the first generation of Safire Personal Jets. Williams was able to modify their highly successful and proven FJ44 design and will provide an FAA-certified engine by the end of 2003 that will mate well with our improved Safire Jet design. With fully certificated engines, Safire will achieve first flight in the first quarter of 2004 and final certification by the end of 2005. Deliveries will begin in early 2006.”

More Changes

Salomon said the aircraft will now be made of metal instead of composite fibers. “Safire’s engineers began to explore alternatives last year, when it became obvious that an ultra lightweight/low-cost engine was not available to meet our schedule requirements. All other suitable engines weigh approximately 300 pounds each and produce thrust of 1,100 pounds. Thus, the aircraft’s structural weight had to be increased to accommodate the added weight of the engines. With approximately 33% more thrust, other changes were also required.”

“We are very excited about the new Safire Jet, as we have dubbed the new airplane," Salomon said in a release to ANN. "In virtually every area of performance and size, these changes have resulted in a faster, larger, more comfortable, longer-range aircraft, with comparable direct operating costs. In fact, we still have more thrust than is required and during testing could discover that some of the performance improvements will possibly be better than projected. One thing for sure, the new Safire Personal Jet with the Williams FJ33-4 engines will have very zippy performance.”

The most important advances are:

• 50-knot speed increase
• NBAA IFR range increase
• A larger cabin that permits, as standard equipment, an enclosed aft lavatory with a hard partition.

While incorporating these necessary design changes, Salomon stated that Safire’s production and certification personnel conducted extensive analyses of the certification requirements for the original advanced composite material airframe. Based on their findings, it was concluded that a composite structure would yield no meaningful weight advantage and that reverting to an all-aluminum structure, which utilized conventional manufacturing techniques would significantly simplify the certification process, as well as lower cost and time requirements.

Another advantage of using proven techniques and materials is that field support and maintenance would be substantially more cost effective for all operators. “First flight of the new aluminum design is now set for early 2004," said Salomon. "Certification is expected by the end of 2005 and deliveries will begin in early 2006. We are confident we will be first to market.”

Avidyne Contract

Salomon then announced that Safire has signed a contract with Avidyne to supply its FlightMax Entegra™ integrated flight deck. “This will make every pilot’s dream of a stateof-the-art-glass cockpit come true,” Salomon stated.

In addition to the avionics by Avidyne, Salomon announced that the landing gear will be supplied by Castle Precision of Sylmar California. He noted that contracts for approximately 80% of the Safire Jet’s major assemblies and components have been negotiated and will be announced as contracts are finalized.

The Money Thing

Salomon said, as a result of the significant improvements in the Safire Personal Jet, the base target price of the new aircraft is now as follows:

• All existing depositors will have access to the new aircraft at a target price of $1,295,000 (Q2, 2003 price basis) and will keep their original delivery position. No additional deposits will be required from them until 10 hours of flight-testing are completed with prototype.
• All new depositors will be offered a target price of $1,395,000 (Q2, 2003 price basis). They will be assigned delivery positions subsequent to positions assigned to existing position holders.
• New depositors will be required an initial deposit of $20,000 and a second payment due after 10 hours of flight-testing.

Safire presently claims to have "in excess of" 720 deposits. Salomon noted that virtually all other personal jet programs have experienced the same magnitude of growth and changes that Safire announced Friday. “It reflects the status of the engine technology that is available. With cutting of first metal in the next several months, and being the only program that will incorporate an engine that is certificated at first flight, we are confident that we will be first to market, with the most dependable engine, airframe and systems,” Salomon said.

Concerning competitors Salomon said, “We know that we are developing a great new aircraft. It will outperform the $2.6 million dollar Cessna Mustang and will fly as fast and as high as the seven seat, $3.9 million dollar Cessna Citation CJ1. Surprisingly, even the four place seating arrangement of the Safire Jet is essentially the same size as that of the CJ1. Nevertheless, we are pleased to note that, at $ 1.295 million in 2003 dollars, the preliminary target price of the new Safire Jet, will still be three times lower than that of the Cessna CJ1 and its direct operating costs will be substantially lower than those of the CJ1."

Safire said it is evaluating different, low cost, lease and financing options, with terms of up to twenty years, to be optimized for the Safire Personal Jet. Safire is also preparing packages including training and insurance for its buyers. A rollout celebration is planned for early next year.

FMI: www.safireaircraft.com, www.avidyne.com