Aircraft
OEMs move forward on jet singles
Piper Aircraft and Cirrus Design are in a dead heat on the progress of their respective single-engine jet prototypes, and the two airplanes could fly withi

Piper Aircraft and Cirrus Design are in a dead heat on the progress of their respective single-engine jet prototypes, and the two airplanes could fly within days of each other. Last month, Piper said its PiperJet prototype would fly in mid-July, while Cirrus hinted that the first example of its jet single could take to the sky in the same time frame.

At Cirrus’s plant in Duluth, Minn., workers are finishing V1, an aerodynamically conforming– but not entirely systems conforming–Cirrus Jet prototype. Company CEO Alan Klapmeier told AIN last month at the Sun ’n’ Fun Fly-In that V1’s tail and wing have been mated to the fuselage. The all-composite, V-tail jet’s Williams FJ33-4A-19 engine has been “on and off the airplane,” he said, and the landing gear has been cycled.