ANN RealTime Update,
1735 EST, 01.09.06: Catching many by surprise with their
announcement of a new bizjet at NBAA 2005 was one thing, but the
news just keeps on coming as ANN has confirmed that the first
flight of the Spectrum 33 took place on Saturday, January 7th,
2006. It was a short hop to reposition the aircraft for test
operations off of a longer runway in Provo, but a first flight
none-the-less -- and a decidedly successful one at that.
The Spectrum 33 is a new light business jet that’s built
using an next-generation, carbon-graphite construction process that
gives it virtually the same size cabin as the most popular,
current-production, eight to nine seat light business jets, but at
a substantially lighter weight. The Spectrum 33 is designed to
cruise at up to 415 knots and fly as far as 2,000 nautical
miles.
Notably, it will consume half as much fuel as current-production
aircraft having the same cabin, range and speed.
“This marks an important point in our development
program,” said industry vet Linden Blue, who is also
vice-chairman of General Atomics. Mr. Blue has previously held the
positions of President and CEO of Beech Aircraft, and Executive
Vice President of Gates Learjet.
“Weight reduction is key to boosting fuel efficiency and
lowering operating costs. The first flight of Spectrum 33 is a
testament to the dedication and hard work put in by an extremely
talented team.” The aircraft was built by a Spectrum
Aeronautical and Rocky Mountain Composites [RMC] joint-design team
at RMC’s plant on the Springville-Spanish Fork municipal
airport, about eight miles southeast of Provo, Utah.
The Spectrum 33 soared off Spanish Fork’s relatively
short, 4,500 ft elevation runway in about 750 ft on its first
flight, even though it was using greatly reduced takeoff thrust. It
was then repositioned to the Provo, Utah airport, a landing
facility with a considerably longer runway. William
“Bill” Davies, Spectrum’s Chief of Flight Test
and Ian Hollingsworth, another veteran test pilot, were at the
controls.
“The acceleration and climb performance of the 33 is
remarkable,” Davies said.
“It has excellent takeoff and landing
characteristics.” He commented that the aircraft performed as
expected, but that pitch control was not optimum. Spectrum’s
engineers, as a result, will modify the aircraft’s flight
control system to increase pitch control authority at higher
speeds. In about a week, Davies and Hollingsworth will resume
testing the aircraft. Davies also noted that “Provo’s
longer runway will let us explore handling characteristics beyond
what’s possible at Spanish Fork.”
Craig Simpson, president of RMC said that the firm’s
fibeXtm material and the processes used to build the aircraft,
“represent a major leap forward in aircraft structures
technology compared to conventional aluminum airframes and existing
composite techniques.” The fibeXtm process was pioneered by
Larry Ashton, RMC’s Chairman.
About the same cabin size of Cessna’s Citation CJ-2+ and
with up to ten-place seating, the Spectrum 33 offers top speeds in
excess of 415-knots, non-stop range of 2,000 nautical miles yet
weighs in at a remarkably low 7,300 pounds gross takeoff weight. At
maximum weight, the 33 can reach its typical cruising altitude of
45,000 feet in a direct climb of only about 20-minutes.
“Low weight translates directly into higher performance
and operating efficiency” Blue said, “so that was one
of our top priorities. Reaching that goal called for a fresh
approach to aircraft manufacturing. The materials and processes
we’ve developed have their origins in conventional
approaches, but we have moved beyond the current
state-of-the-art,” he said.
“Our breakthrough comes in successfully adapting this
technology to create a competitive business jet.”
Powered by twin Williams International FJ-334A’s, the
Spectrum 33 replaces aluminum and older composites found in many
existing aircraft with an advanced, next generation carbon graphite
material called fibeX™. The result is a very light jet that
provides the comfort of a fullsized cabin with performance that
matches or exceeds any other aircraft in its class.
Preliminary Spectrum 33 Stats:
-
Projected selling price: $3.65M in 2005
dollars
-
Seating 1+8/9
-
High Speed Cruise: 415 ktas
-
Normal Cruise 45,000 ft
-
Range: 2,000 nm
-
Cabin height x width: 4 ft 10 in x 4 ft 10
in
-
Cabin length: 18 ft
-
Engines: 2x Williams FJ33-4
-
Useful load: 3,865 lbs
-
Payload: 2,000 lbs
Once comprehensive testing of the current proof-of-concept
aircraft is complete, Spectrum Aeronautical will freeze the design
and build production conforming flight test aircraft to be used for
certification testing. FAA Type Certification of the Spectrum 33 is
slated for late 2007 or in 2008.