SJ30 taking off at last

With the first flight just a week ago of Emivest Aerospace's SJ30 light jet the company is building momentum since EIDC acquired the troubled aircraft manufacturer last year.

Serial number 008 flew from the factory in San Antonio, Texas, USA on May 30 and is now being prepared for delivery sometime this summer.

“The airplane flew exceptionally well just as we expected it would. We completed the items on the flight test card as planned including tests for handling qualities, stability and control and selected critical systems,” said John Siemens the company’s Chief Test Pilot.

Joe Gullion, Emivest COO, said: “Our customer is very excited about receiving his aircraft. We are happy that all of the hard work and planning is finally paying off resulting in the flight of serial number 008.” He adds “We have moved aircraft in flow behind 008 and look forward to beginning to deliver aircraft on a regular basis.”

Serial number 008 will continue on through its productions checks, and then be delivered to Jet Works Air Center in Denton, Texas for the completion of paint and numerous optional equipment installations including HF radio, Garmin 500, XM radio/weather, Alto speaker system, cockpit voice recorder, and a cabin entertainment system.

S/N008 on its maiden flight in San Antonio

The SJ30 has had a troubled development and although the aircraft was FAA certified in 2005 there remains only one aircraft in customer service at present. From financial woes, to tooling issues this aircraf's development has had issues and taken more than 20 years. Aircraft S/N009 is the first for an Action Aviation customer (who hold around 160 orders for the type), and S/N 010 has been bought by film star Morgan Freeman, replacing his Cessna Citation.

It has a range of 2,500nm and is a seriously fast light jet with a Mach .83 (486 kts) cruise speed. As well as being single pilot certified it is able to cruise at altitudes up to 49,000ft and maintains a sea level cabin up to 41,000 ft with a 12psi differential.