Today’s Top Pick is a 2019 Cirrus SF50 G2 Vision Jet.

Transitioning to jets is a big deal for any pilot, whether you fly for the airlines, the military, or your own one-ship family transport organization. For that last group, the change from piston power to a jet is striking, especially when you are flying it yourself as a single pilot. The workload might grow, but so do the rewards.

I had the good fortune to fly a Vision Jet for an article I wrote in 2017, and what I noticed first was how roomy the cabin was. It felt like my family would be as comfortable there as they are in the den at home. Next was the extra speed. Destinations that normally were two hours away at 150 ktas suddenly were just one hour away. I immediately understood the appeal and was not surprised to hear that Cirrus delivered its 500th Vision Jet last fall. The fleet is large enough that I encounter the jets regularly on the ramp at Essex County Airport near my New Jersey home.

This Vision Jet has 760 hours on the airframe and on its Williams FJ33-5A engine since new. The full FADEC engine has a 4,000-hour TBO and has been managed under the Williams International TAPS Blue maintenance program.

The panel features the Garmin G3000 integrated flight deck with  the Cirrus Perspective+ Touchscreen interface, synthetic vision, Iridium satellite communications, TCAS, real-time weather radar, enhanced vision systems, Jeppesen ChartView, and more.

Pilots interested in moving up the performance ladder from a Cirrus SR22 or other fast piston models should consider this Cirrus Vision Jet, which was designed with transitioning piston PICs in mind, and is available for $2.9 million on AircraftForSale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Finance. For more information, email info@flyingfinance.com.

• FLYING Magazine: Cirrus Delivers 500th SF50 Vision Jet
• FLYING Magazine: Verijet Adds 3 Cirrus SF50 G2+ Vision Jets to Fleet
• FLYING Magazine: We Fly: Cirrus Vision Jet G2+
• FLYING Magazine: Cirrus Adds Second Vision Jet Simulator
• Plane & Pilot: Cirrus Launches Generation Two SF50 Vision Jet
• Plane & Pilot: 2019 Planes Of The Year: Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet G2 And Piper 100
• The Aviation Consumer: Cirrus Jet G2+: More Power, Gogo Wi-Fi

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On Tuesday, the OEM revealed that development continues on the project, with its official “commercialization” or plan to pursue type certification on the clean-sheet light jet. Intended to be a midsize jet in a light jet’s body, the HondaJet 2600 is aimed at a 2,625 nm range (four passengers and one pilot, NBAA IFR) and 450 ktas maximum cruise speed—but at 20 percent better fuel efficiency than other light jets, and a 40 percent improvement over midsize models. 

The company targets FAA type certification in 2028, with entry into service as a single-pilot-operated platform. Up to 11 people can be seated on board, with the option for nine or 10 passengers depending on crew requirements.

• READ MORE: A Look at the HondaJet 2600 Concept

“The commercialization of our new light jet represents Honda’s next chapter of skyward mobility, which further expands the potential of people’s lives,” said Hideto Yamasaki, president and CEO of Honda Aircraft. “By building on the expertise behind our technological innovations, we will accelerate the development of the program with sustainability a key element throughout.”

Supply partners include Garmin, for the G3000 integrated flight deck, Williams International and its FJ44-4C engines, Spirit AeroSystems providing the fuselage, and Aernnova for other aerostructures and components. Fabrication of the first airframe is underway as Honda Aircraft completes initial engineering on the program.

On June 13 and 14,  Honda Aircraft will be hosting a supplier conference at its global headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, for those involved in the HondaJet 2600 program.

Specfications

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Williams International recently completed a successful flight test of its FJ44-4 engine using 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on their flying testbed aircraft. The flight was conducted from the Williams International flight operations center in Pontiac, Michigan, and flew to points in northern Michigan with a total of 3.5 hours of flight time at a cruising altitude of FL450. This flight test follows extensive material compatibility and endurance testing that validated engine performance and durability using 100 percent SAF.

“The flight was uneventful and the engine performed flawlessly,” said Williams International chief test pilot Robert Lambert, adding that “the engine did not even seem to notice that it was burning sustainable fuel.” This successful flight marks another step in the Williams Blue Planet Initiative to significantly reduce the environmental impact of aviation by driving towards a carbon-neutral product lifecycle. “We have shown that Williams’ engines can utilize 100 percent SAF to help decarbonize aviation,” said Gregg Williams, chairman, president and CEO of Williams International, and copilot of the flight test. “The next critical step is to accelerate the production of SAF to make it more widely available and affordable.”

The importance of testing jet engines using 100 percent SAF cannot be understated if the industry’s goal of halving total carbon emissions by 2050 is to be achieved. According to an AirBP report, a manufacturer of SAF, jet fuels made from sustainable materials such as waste cooking oils, wood waste, and fast-growing energy crops like algae are often blended into traditional jet-A made from fossil fuels. AirBP’s data says SAF produces up to 80 percent fewer lifecycle carbon emissions than the traditional fuel it replaces. To be a truly sustainable fuel, it needs to be 100 percent SAF, such as the fuel used in the recent Williams International flight test.

The FJ33/FJ44 family of fanjet engines began with the introduction of the simple yet rugged FJ44-1A, and there are currently more than 5,700 FJ44 engines in service with an accumulated 13 million hours in flight, according to the company. This two-spool turbofan engine uses two low-pressure turbines to drive a fan and intermediate pressure compressor, and one high-pressure turbine to drive a centrifugal compressor. The company currently offers four models in thrusts ranging including the 1,850 lbf produced by the FJ33, with the FJ44 family producing between 2,100 to 3,600 lbf of thrust.

Because of the low weight and high output of this small family of engines, OEMs have been able to develop light jets such as the single-engine Cirrus Vision Jet, which uses the Williams International FJ33-5A for its power. And the PC-24 “Super Versatile Jet” from Pilatus uses a pair of Williams FJ44-4A engines producing 3,420 lbf of thrust each for power.

Along with producing its family of fanjet engines, Williams International is also known for establishing highly integrated and automated manufacturing facilities to produce its commercial and military products. According to the company, its production workflow simply boils down to this: “Ingot and other raw materials enter one end of these facilities and finished engines exit the other.”

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Williams International has received type and production certification from the FAA and EASA for its FJ44-4A-QPM engine. Production deliveries have already begun. The FJ44-4A-QPM engines will power the new Pilatus PC-24 Super Versatile Jet that will begin deliveries later this year.

As part of an integrated propulsion module, Williams is supplying an anti-ice and noise suppressing inlet, an integral pre-cooler to condition engine bleed air and reduce drag losses, and its patented Exact passive thrust vectoring exhaust nozzle technology.

The PC-24 will also be the first FJ44 application to take advantage of Williams’ Quiet Power Mode, a new proprietary feature allowing the FJ44 to provide quiet, efficient ground power, eliminating the need for a traditional APU. And the FJ44-4A-QPM is the first FJ44 model to be certified with Williams latest and most advanced health-monitoring Fadec system that will be incorporated into all models in the FJ33/FJ44 turbofan family. The engine provides the operator a class-leading TBO of 5,000 hours with an on-wing inspection of the hot section at 2,500 hours.

“I am grateful to the Williams team and their FAA and EASA counterparts for the cooperative work that led to this TC, and we look forward to building these engines for the exciting new Pilatus PC-24,” said Gregg Williams, Chairman, CEO, and President of Williams International.

The FJ44-4A-QPM joins a product line of FJ33 and FJ44 engines that cover the thrust spectrum from 1,000 to 4,000 pounds of thrust. The FJ44-4A-QPM engine incorporates durability improvements gleaned from 12 million hours of operation of the 5,300 FJ44 engines in service.

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Textron’s Beechcraft subsidiary has received full FAA certification for all program elements of its Beechcraft/Hawker 400A upgrade. All upgrade work is completed either in Wichita, Kansas, or at a Textron Aviation service center. The completed effort transforms the old 1980s-era airframe into a Hawker 400XPR that offers improved climb and takeoff performance, as well as better cruise and range numbers. The Hawker 400A transformation can be completed in stages, or in as little as 12 weeks of continuous downtime.

The upgrade switches out the standard 2,900-pound-thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada engines for a pair of Williams International FJ44-4A-32s producing 3,200 pounds of thrust each. The new power plants create a 33 percent increase in range, along with improvements in runway and hot/high performance. The 400XPR will carry four passengers nearly 2,000 nm. The upgraded airplane also climbs to FL450 in 19 minutes and offers a top speed of 450 knots.

The full upgrade includes a pair of Hawker winglets that increase the aircraft’s range 5 to 7 percent, with a reduction in stall speed and improvement in stability. One choice operators will need to make is whether to retain the 400A’s existing Rockwell Collins Pro Line 4 avionics, or upgrade to Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics.

All components of the factory-approved, engineered and supported upgrade package are available for installation on Beechjet 400A/Hawker 400XP aircraft at Textron Aviation service centers. Textron expects to deliver the first full factory-completed Hawker 400XPR to an operator later this year.

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Polish car-part manufacturer Metal Master has for years been working on a very light jet named Flaris LAR 1, which was on the road to its first flight in early 2015. The company has now mounted a new engine, the Williams FJ33-5A, to the tail section of the tiny fuselage. The engine received FAA certification in June and this week marked its first start-up mounted on the Flaris jet.

The Williams engine replaces the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F engine that was initially selected for the LAR 1. The company completed the initial taxi test phase with that engine, but the airplane never flew.

At 2,000 pounds of thrust the FJ33-5A generates a lot more thrust than the PW610F would have for the LAR 1. The company claims the light jet was designed to take off and land at short grass strips, having a takeoff run of only 820 feet. Top cruise speed has been published at 380 knots cruise speed with a range of 1,400 nm with four people on board. Those are all ambitious targets. When and if we will see the Flaris fly remains to be seen.

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Williams International’s new FJ33-5A turbofan engine on Monday was awarded its FAA Part 33 type certificate. The company used what it learned in development of the earlier FJ44-3AP and FJ44-4A powerplants to give the new FJ33-5A more than 2,000 pounds of thrust, improved fuel economy and a better than 6-to-1 thrust-to-weight ratio.

The FJ33-5A — selected to power the Cirrus Vision and the Flaris LAR1 — incorporates wide-sweep fans, health-monitoring fadec controls, low-emissions combustor technology and additional sensor suite redundancy to satisfy the unique needs of the single-engine jet market.

Williams’ FJ33-5A also incorporates durability improvements gleaned from more than 10 million hours of operation of the 5,000 in-service FJ44s and helps fill in the product line of engines covering the 1,000 to 3,800 pounds thrust regime.

All FJ33-5A owners are enrolled in the company’s Total Assurance Program (TAP Blue) that covers even unusual operational situations, such as engine damage caused by hail, birds, lightning or man-made objects accidentally ingested into the powerplant. While the cost to incorporate mandatory service bulletins has always been covered by TAP, even optional bulletins are now covered.

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The fuel in this test was a coal-based formulation that could be produced domestically, say its developers, a team of researchers from Penn State University. And the process, which is currently being developed for coal, might also be applied to waste biomass, municipal solid waste and purpose-grown biomass, like algae.

Unlike jet-A, the new coal-based fuel — Williams ran 2,000 gallons of it through the test engine — burns cleaner and with negligible levels of nitrogen, sulfur and aromatics. It also has higher energy density, making it more efficient for longer range on the same amount of fuel per weight.

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It was through an improbable chain of events almost 30 years ago that Sierra founder and president Mark Huffstutler found himself in Uvalde running an FBO. And then, almost before he knew it, he was the man behind a series of ever more ambitious aviation ventures, including a full-service maintenance hangar and a busy mod shop. Starting in 1986, Sierra acquired the rights to several modifications packages, including the Citation Eagle and Longwing mods, the well-known lineup of Robertson STOL modifications, and the mods owned by the Dee Howard company, in nearby San Antonio.

Before long, Sierra found itself as one of the handful of companies in the world that specialize in breathing new life into older jets in large part by putting new technology engines on them.

Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the details of a mod package by focusing not on what a program does for the airplane but on how it does it. The end result can’t happen without the little details getting taken care of, but what most customers are looking for is the bottom line.

And with the Sierra Citation Super II and Super S-II, those bottom lines are very impressive.

Sierra’s Mission: Find New Homes for the Williams FJ44

While Sierra Industries today owns more than 300 STCs, many of them for Cessna Citations, it is safe to say that it wouldn’t be the same company without the Williams FJ44 turbofan engine. Developed in the late 1980s as a 1,900-pound thrust engine for the original CitationJet, the Williams powerplant has since gone through numerous growth cycles, each one engendering at least one new and improved Citation along the way. (The Beech Premier I uses FJ44s, as well.)

Sierra’s first engine replacement program was for the Citation I. The Eagle 400 swapped out the original Pratt & Whitney JT-15D-1 engines of the 500 with the JT-15D-4 model used in the original Citation II. The airplane also got an increase in max takeoff weight to 12,500 lbs, and the boost in power from 2,200 pounds of thrust per side to 2,500 pounds gave the Eagle 400 much improved climb and cruise speed performance, compared with the stock Citation I.

But it was the introduction of the Williams FJ44 turbofan engine in the 1990s that gave Sierra a launching pad for new programs. The first FJ44 program, the FJ44 Eagle II, certified in 2002, put FJ44-2A engines in the Citation I, making a whole new airplane out of it, with far greater fuel efficiency and impressive performance improvements across the board. Sierra’s Stallion mod, which puts FJ44s on a modified Longwing Citation 500 or a 501, was introduced in 2006. In all, Sierra has re-engined nearly 50 Citation I aircraft.

Citation IIs Take Off

Sierra has two programs for Citation II airplanes, both of which offer spectacular performance improvements over the originals.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Citation genealogy, the Citation II was a larger follow-on to the original Citation. Introduced in 1978, the Citation II featured a larger cabin and more powerful engines. The S-II model came about in the mid-80s and for a time took the place of the II — it’s a complicated family tree. On the same fuselage as the II, the S-II featured a new wing and improved Pratt engines.

Those early Citations are remarkably durable airplanes. Sierra has done engine swaps and full refurbs on Citations with more than 10,000 hours on the airframe, and the fleet leader, they told me, has around 25,000 hours and is still going strong. They are very solidly built.

People who don’t know the airplanes assume that the Citation II is a relatively small airplane; it’s not. With 10 passenger seats and an impressive range, even unmodified, the II and the S-II are substantial and capable business aircraft.

They are even more so after Sierra gets done with them.

The centerpiece of the Citation II engine replacement programs is the Williams FJ44-3A. The engines, as installed in the Sierra Citation Super II and Super S-II, produce 2,820 pounds of thrust each, compared to 2,500 pounds per side for the Pratt & Whitney JT15 engines on the original airplanes.

At an approximate cost of $1.9 million, when you trade in the airplane’s serviceable JT15s, the engine swap isn’t cheap.

But it does bring big benefits. In addition to being more powerful than the original Pratt & Whitney engines on the original Citation II models, the FJ44-3As feature dual-channel full authority digital engine control (fadec). The fadec makes the pilot’s job easier while eliminating the need for thrust reversers. Because the residual thrust with the fadec engines is so much lower, by several hundred pounds in fact, there is no need for reverse thrust for braking. This saves weight, complexity and cost.

The fuel efficiency is another benefit both in terms of cost and utility. Both Sierra airplanes have substantially better range than the originals, thanks to higher cruise speeds and more efficient engine design. According to Sierra’s numbers, the Super II has an NBAA range of 1,775 nm, a 397 nm improvement over the Citation II, and its 400 knot max normal cruise speed is 45 knots faster than the unmodified airplane. The Super S-II has an NBAA range of 2,300 nm, which is 461 nm better than the S-II, and its 420-knot typical cruise speed is 35 knots faster than the already fast Citation II’s 385-knot figure. With the Sierra mods, max fuel payload is especially noteworthy in the Super II, which has 1,278 pounds of payload compared with just 328 for the Pratt-equipped Citation II. The Super S-II improves on the S-II’s 1,036-pound max fuel payload by better than 400 pounds.

The speed and range improvements are striking, but the climb performance upgrade is arguably the most noteworthy benefit that owners will see. As part of the STC, the ceiling on both IIs increases from FL 410 to FL 430, and while both previous airplanes needed to step climb to their maximum altitude, a process that would take well over an hour or substantially longer depending on temperatures, the Super II and Super S-II can get up to 430 with no intermediate stops in right around 25 at max takeoff weight. As you might guess, this is one of the main drivers of the improved range figures, as the airplanes get up to more fuel efficient altitudes much faster, saving fuel and increasing trip speed.

Flying the Super II: An Eye Opener

A short while back Mark Huffstutler and Gary Buchanan from Sierra flew up to Austin in a Super II to pick me up and fly me down to Uvalde so I could see firsthand just what Sierra does and how they do it.

What they mainly do, of course, is make good airplanes better, and my experience in the airplane was an eye-opening introduction to that fact.

For the first flight, Mark was at the controls, and he, like demo pilots the world around, wanted to show me what his airplane could do. We were fairly light, with 2,100 pounds of fuel and roughly 600 pounds of people aboard, for a takeoff weight of 10,374 pounds.

After getting cleared to take off, Mark lined it up and advanced the throttles while holding the brakes. The Super II is a single-pilot airplane, and the addition of fadec makes it without question a better and safer single-pilot airplane. When Huffstutler released the brakes, we rocketed forward. It was quite a spectacular display, and as we departed and climbed out he had to raise the nose to an extremely high deck angle, in order to keep the airspeed at the desired 200 knots. It seemed as though it took no more than 30 seconds to reach our preliminary clearance altitude of 4,000 feet, and Huffstutler had to push the nose hard over to level off. It’s not how one would normally fly the airplane, but it made the point. There is performance to spare. We were, in fact, seeing a rate of climb of around 5,000 fpm. Single-engine climb is better than 1,700 fpm at max takeoff weight.

As usual, we didn’t get a direct climb to FL 430, but factoring out the brief level-offs it took us less than 18 minutes to get to our ceiling. And at FL 430 we were seeing a true airspeed of 390 knots on 775 pounds of fuel per hour. In all, the trip down to Uvalde — we made a lengthy detour so I could see the airplane do its thing — covered 279 nm, took one hour and seven minutes to fly, and we burned 900 pounds of fuel in the process. The flight culminated in an RNAV approach to near minimums at Uvalde.

Based on our flight compared with the POH figures for the original, Pratt-powered airplane, the Super II is 44 knots faster at the same fuel burn under the same conditions. When you pull the power back to the same cruise speed as the Pratts, the fuel burn is around 25 percent lower with the FJ44s.

Touring Sierra

Normally, I’d call what I did when in Uvalde a “factory tour,” but I had to remind myself that Sierra doesn’t really build new airplanes, even though it does seem like it at times.

The municipal airport at Uvalde has a single, 5,000-foot-long runway with hangars huddled around it. Many of those hangars belong to Sierra Industries. As of my visit, the company had 85 full-time employees and 84,000 square feet of hangar space, where workers perform every imaginable kind of maintenance work on airplanes, mostly Citations but not exclusively.

On my visit I got the chance to see not only the scope of what Sierra does — it’s quite an operation — but how it goes about it.

I saw a number of Citations in various states of modification, some just getting started on the project and some nearly ready to fly. On one airplane Sierra technicians had just gotten finished installing the engine support for the new FJ44s, and the structure itself was telling. Instead of removing and beefing up the existing supports, Sierra adds an extra member running through the fuselage side to side, supporting each engine, adding strength without compromising the existing underlying support structure. It’s a smart and robust solution.

As a part of its core work, Sierra has to create new parts, and to this end it has invested in that capability, with state of the art machine and sheet metal shops, as well as a separate fabrication shop.

With all of its STCs, the company generates a lot of business on work other than re-engining projects. Sierra has popular STCs for adding extended fuel, a quick-release radome, glareshield switches, an enlarged cabin door, four-point pilot harnesses, and even a three-place aft divan. Often, customers who come in to get new engines on their Citations, and new engines only, leave with a handful of other mods.

One selling tool that isn’t really intended that way, or so Sierra says, is their loan/lease program. Occasionally when Sierra customers take an FJ44-equipped Sierra Citation to fly while their jet is in the shop for maintenance, they come back complaining that now they need engines too. Sierra both apologizes and is glad to oblige them.

There are, in fact, lots of other services in addition to engine swaps and radome refurbs that Sierra, or its Uvalde-based partners, offer. While their airplane is in Uvalde, many customers choose to completely redo the airplane while they’re getting new engines, opting for fresh paint, a new interior and upgraded avionics.

The airplane we flew was the factory demonstrator, and it was completely refurbished, with a nice leather interior, new upholstery and carpet, and, of course, brand-new FJ44s.

It was also outfitted with a mostly new avionics system, featuring dual Universal primary flight displays and a pilot MFD, with dual Garmin GNS 430 navigators and more. The autopilot was the original and still capable Sperry SPZ-500. It’s a good and modern avionics system, though it’s not on a par with the Pro Line 21 system in a new CJ3, for example. For a variety of reasons, when it comes to the avionics, it’s tough for modifiers to compete with factory-new airplanes.

There are other additions particular to the new engines, including new gauges and controls, and the throttle system is modified for the fadec. Also gone are the controls for the thrust reversers. Huffstutler said that while some customers express concern over their loss, they quickly get over it when they realize the new airplanes simply stop in less distance than the old ones, even without TRs.

Huffstutler says that the decision on the part of Citation II owners to go with brand-new FJ44s on their old birds is a value proposition. While it’s hard in this economy to measure the value of any investment, there is still a lot to be said for upgrading the airplane you already own. And for those looking to purchase a used airplane, buying an already refurbished Super II or Super S-II instead of a new, smaller airplane gives you a lot of performance with the comfortable cabin of the Citation II. When Sierra puts its airplanes side by side with existing, unmodified IIs, the performance delta is striking. When it compares them to comparable new airplanes, like the CJ3 or Learjet 45, the performance numbers are comparable and the acquisition price is about half. While prices vary widely based on options chosen, and needed, an extensively converted Super II goes for between $3.5 and $4.6 million.

A big part of the value is to be found with the improved performance of the Williams engines. You go farther on less fuel. Over time, those savings add up. And Sierra is a true believer in the Williams maintenance plan, the Total Assurance Program (TAP), touting its lower overall costs, including no signup fee, better labor and shipping coverage, and 100 percent coverage for wear-out items and mandatory service bulletins. Sierra estimates the savings on maintenance with the FJ44s over the life of the engines (TBO) to be in the neighborhood of $300,000.

Of course, not everything in life is a value proposition. The quality of life improvements that the Super II and Super S-II offer are profound. Compared to the originals, the Sierra airplanes are faster, quieter, smoother and more comfortable. They fly higher, farther and more efficiently, and on some longer trips do away with the need for the fuel stop.

It’s interesting to think that with an infusion of new technology, some tender loving care and a sizable investment in the process, you can get a 30-something-year-old airplane up to speed. That you can make it nearly as good or, in some cases, better than new in the process is nothing short of remarkable. It’s all testimony to the stout, smart and capable airplanes that Cessna built starting back in the 1970s, and to the improvements in small turbofan engine design that Williams International has achieved in more recent years with the FJ44-series engines.

Ever since it showed up on the scene in Uvalde, Texas, some 30-odd years ago, Sierra Industries has put itself in a great position, taking that new engine technology and marrying it to some great existing airframes.

The results of that marriage are some truly remarkable “new” airplanes.

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