Cirrus SF50 Certification Penned For Mid-2016 Duluth-based airframer Cirrus Aircraft is eyeing Mid-2016 for certification of the SF50 single-engine personal jet. It's been a long hard road for Cirrus trying to bring this aircraft to market but with much-need capital from Chinese company CAIGA, the program was accelerated significantly but it still doesn't deny the long near 10-year development and certification period for the company.
Since 2007 this company has been working on the single engine personal jet. It is powered by Williams International using an FJ33-5A engine mounted between the plane's V-tail. Three testbed aircraft have been used to date in the testing phases and collectively have over 1,000 hours under the belt. Next month is going to be a fairly important month in testing for the SF50 with the CAPS system being evaluated. Tests have been done already in relation to the CAPS (Cirrus Airframe Parachute System) for load generation and such but live deployment needs to be conducted naturally to please and satisfy the certification system. Once certification is achieved, Cirrus anticipates to deliver the first client aircraft in the second half of the year. Approximately 550 orders have come in for the personal jet and an overwhelming majority of that figure are present or former Cirrus aircraft owners. For more information: Cirrus Design Corporation 4515 Taylor Circle Duluth, MN 55811 www.cirrusaircraft.com ***
