A "D" You'd Love To Get

The Diamond Jet, or D-Jet for short, made its first public appearance Wednesday in a little town in Oshkosh, WI -- where several thousand aviation enthusiasts suddenly ratcheted up their aircraft aspirations. Diamond, an Austrian company that has good success with their piston powered personal aircraft, is now poised to join the ranks of companies offering the Very Light Jet (VLJ).

The D-Jet was scheduled to arrive at 10am. At 9:59, the tower cleared Diamond Jet C-GVLJ to overfly the runway which it did very quietly.  After landing, the jet taxied to Aeroshell Square, which is the primary place of honor for significant airplanes. There, Christian Dries, CEO of Diamond Aircraft, and Anthony Brown, Chief Test Pilot, exited the plane to the wide grins of a dozen Diamond employees.

After an enormous tow-bar (approximately one half the size of the entire plane!) was attached to the nose gear, the decision was made to simply have the employees push the plane into position... which also demonstrated the relative lightness of this Very Light Jet. Once in position, two polite Diamond personnel stationed themselves on either side of the yard long pitot tube/test probe.

The plane, clearly the working prototype and not particularly shiny, still cut a dramatic profile.

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey welcomed Mr. Dries to the stage and remarks were also made by Tom Poberezny, of the EAA, and the vice presidents of Garmin and Williams International who supply the glass panel and single turbofan engine, respectively. All congratulated Diamond for the technological developments it had brought to aviation and wished continued success for the Canadian/Austrian company.

Onlookers included a wide assortment of airplane fans, some who were simply anxious to see the latest high-tech airframe, and others who might actually be customers of the VLJ.

The plane, which was heavily instrumented, required a fuel stop for its relatively short flight from London, Ontario. After performing another aerial display to open Wednesday's Airventure 2006 airshow, the Diamond D-Jet returned to Canada that afternoon.

In the meantime, Christian Dries cordially invited everyone to come to the Diamond exhibit to sit in the mock-up of the fuselage and consider placing an order for his new jet.

FMI: www.diamondaircraft.com