Sino Swearingen SJ30-2 Being Prepared for First Flight

In mid-September, the first production-conforming Sino Swearingen SJ30-2 was being prepared for its first flight in San Antonio, TX, following its rollout in July. Two more flying prototypes and two structural test airframes are behind it on the production line. Five years after the company was formed, Sino Swearingen's patient investors are seeing some new hardware on the ramp.

The next two flight test aircraft should be in the air by early 2001 -- the first of them was in the wing-to-body mate tool in September. Sino Swearingen expects that the certification program will be accelerated because of the 270 hours of testing conducted since September 1997 on the single pre-production prototype, Certification could then be accomplished by the end of 2001, making Sino Swearingen the first new-start company to certificate a business jet since Lear Jet, 40 years ago.
As the fifth test airframe moves down the line, production tooling is being transferred to the company's new 87,500 square-foot final assembly facility at Martinsburg, WV.

The first components for a production aircraft will arrive there at the end of this year. The company expects to build around a half-dozen production aircraft before certification. Plans call for 36 aircraft to be delivered in the first full year of production and 72 in the second year.

The pre-production aircraft-which was originally flown in 1991 as the smaller SJ30-1-has now been placed in storage. Its last series of tests were completed in April and included flights at speeds up to Mach 0.8 and altitudes as high as 43,000 feet, as well as low-speed and stall testing. Aerodynamically "there are no real differences" between the pre-production and the new production aircraft, the company says.

The SJ30-2 has a high-aspect-ratio, small-area wing-the wing is less than ten per cent larger than a Cessna 172's-with full-span flaps and slats. The wing is too small to accommodate the landing gear, which retracts fighter-style into the wing roots. Another unusual feature is a 12 psi cabin-pressure differential, which provides a sea level cabin environment at 41,000 feet. Ed Swearingen, the original designer of the SJ30, included this feature to reduce passenger fatigue.

Chemically milled skins combine strength and simplicity with light weight and (another Swearingen feature) retain their smoothness throughout the airplane's life. As Ed Swearingen remarked when the design was unveiled, another New Orleans NBAA in 1987: "If a guy drives to the airport in a $50,000 car, his $2 million airplane should look as good as the car."

Sino Swearingen claims 165 orders for the SJ30-2, up from around 140 a year ago. Around two-thirds of the customers are in the U.S., consistent with the overall business jet market, but the company says that the total includes an unusually large proportion of individual entrepreneurs and owner-pilots. An important thrust of the redesign of the airplane's flightdeck, started in 1998, was to make it easier for a single pilot to fly. The SJ30-2 has a Honeywell Primus Epic integrated avionics system.

Sino Swearingen expects more corporate customers to sign on once the aircraft has its type certificate. The main selling point for the SJ30-2 is range, the company says. The airplane's 2500 nmi mission range, with four occupants and NBAA IFR reserves, is greater than that of its rivals (the Raytheon Premier and Cessna Citation CJ2, also powered by Williams FJ44-2 engines), and it also offers a higher cruising altitude and a high (Mach 0.78) long-range cruise speed. "If you have a long-range mission, it's the only game in town at $5 million," comments a company spokesman.