Whether or not Cirrus Design of Duluth, Minn., ever decides to build a single-engine personal jet depends heavily on what emerges on the small-turbofan development front. Cirrus director of marketing Ian Bentley told AIN, “Throughout aviation history, starting with the Wright brothers, airframe development has relied on the emergence of new engines.”
The small-turbofan movement took a big hit last year when Eclipse’s relationship with Williams International dissolved after the latter’s EJ22 was deemed unable to meet the performance goals for the Eclipse 500 very light jet. Cirrus’ jet, however, could benefit from the shakeout. Eclipse now realizes it needs an engine with more thrust than the 770 pounds expected from the EJ22. Engine manufacturers, including Pratt & Whitney Canada and, perhaps, Honeywell, are working hard on turbofans in the 900- to 1,000-pound-thrust range to meet the need. For instance, P&WC’s 1,350-lb-thrust PW615F, recently selected to power the Cessna Citation Mustang, could be recast in a lower-thrust version.
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