The arrival of the Cirrus Jet could be ushering in a new age for general aviation. It’s the culmination of over a decade or more of planning, R&D and a lot of capital. It can be said that every lover of general aviation has longed for some type of “next level” transformation if you will, where it would be possible to have a solid single engine jet GA aircraft design that a new future of general aviation can be built on. There are so many small jet engine designs and small jet engine technologies that it has left many to wonder why it took so long for this to happen.
How many?
How many pilots have looked at a Cessna, Piper or Beechcraft and wondered if it would be possible to blend or mold a jet engine around these airframe’s somehow? I think everyone will agree that GA needs to move on and up. Stepping out with new designs is good for all of general aviation. We like our piston planes, but the time has come to start working single engine jet aircraft into the fleet. This is the first step to do just that and what a step it is. Vision specs: https://www.primaryflightcontrol.com/plane/id/14831. Respectable stats any new owner would be happy to be reading from the POH.
This is it!
This is it, it’s finally here and certified! The first aircraft has already been delivered to a longtime Cirrus customer. As with any new aircraft, there will be some opportunities to improve, but the future looks bright with a huge back order already on the books. Could this be just like the Piper Cub? Are there going to be spinoff aircraft from this design? Look at the revolution the Cub caused. It’s been reproduced and improved upon so many times, there’s no doubt 100 years from now it’ll still be coming off the assembly line or built out of someone’s hanger somewhere in the world.
What’s the next step?
What’s the next step in the march towards turning over the fleet from pistons being the standard to small personal jet aircraft taking its place? While at just under two million dollars, the Vision Jet is not going to be the next C172, but what if this encourages others to dive in and IF and just IF the price point could get to the 400-600k range? We could see a fleet revolution. The Sonex Jet is another good start, but there needs to be a place for those two designs to meet in the middle somewhere. We can only hope that lessons learned from these designs can be improved upon and others can come to the market with their own version of the Vision if you will.
This is our say, now what’s yours? Sound off!
