Despite a crash in 2006 and a general aviation and business community that has left very light jets for dead, the prototype Sport Jet has flown once again and the company, Excel Jet Ltd., is reworking the next generation.

With many very light jet aircraft manufacturers taking a hiatus and putting their projects on hold, and others left defunct and littered along the long highway of mismanagement, lack of funding, and rising research and certification expenses, Excel Jet Ltd. rises from the ashes of a tainted concept and challenges the industry with its next generation Sport Jet. Only Cessna and Embraer have succeeded. Who will be the next to step up and announce a jet that is simple for you to fly, easy to maintain, inexpensive to operate (cost per mile) and cheap to insure? It just might be this jet.

Many industry and government coalitions have attempted to develop the concept of personal jets over the past 40 years. Even NASA, through the GAP and SATS initiatives, has been involved. NASA likens the concept to having jet like performance and safety at propeller prices (NASA has implied that jet safety is much better than propeller safety). Yet, the airplane and jet ventures have been handcuffed by poor performance, cost overruns, poor engine reliability and empty promises to many buyers. And don’t forget the more recent bankruptcies and setbacks by ATG, Adam Aircraft Industries, Eclipse, Diamond, Cirrus, Spectrum, Safire, Epic, etc. The list of companies with good ideas that have failed is quite lengthy.

Excel Jet’s Phoenix Will Rise Again

Now, for the sake of full disclosure, I was the test pilot helping Excel Jet Ltd. with the workup to first flight that included engine runs and taxi tests, nearly four years ago. James Stewart (another Sport Jet test pilot) and I flew the Sport Jet for over 25 flights in about 25 days for about 25 flight hours in May and June 2006. Quite a feat by today’s standards.

What makes Sport Jet different from the rest of the field? The answer is simple compared to others that have tried before.

It boils down to the basic design and the approach to design and manufacturing. Excel Jet Ltd.’s owner and CEO, Bob Bornhofen, said, “First, a VLJ has to be insurable. Second, it has to be affordable. Third, the airplane needs to have performance like a jet. And, fourth, it must be simple to fly. And, it must be designed from the start so that it can be certified by the FAA without adding gizmos and gadgets to meet FAR 23 requirements. Keep it simple.”

Bornhofen created the first, modern VLJ, which first flew in early 2000. He and his team designed and built the Maverick Twin Jet. Three of these experimental category jets are still flying today. The team was actually forced to modify and retrofit scrapped jet engines to install on the Maverick because there wasn’t a small enough engine available at the time, due to delays of NASA GAP FJX-2 engines that were in the pipeline. Because these modified jet engines weren’t approved by the FAA for production aircraft, the Maverick was not able to move forward towards FAA certification. It wasn’t until recent years that this was overcome with the development of small and lightweight turbofans, like the Williams FJ33 and Pratt & Whitney 610 jet engines. This milestone had opened the door for virtually any personal jet to be built that was affordable, reliable, and fuel efficient.

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