"For the last 40 years, nothing has replaced a King Air
except another King Air," says Niall Olver, CEO of ExecuJet.
He had an idea to take on the King Air by producing a
revolutionary utility twinjet that could operate off unpaved strips and cruise
at jet speeds and with jet smoothness.
This, as it happened, coincided exactly with Grob
Aerospace's thinking and it, and a private consortium headed by Olver, are
sharing 50/50 the costs of building and developing the aircraft, which emerged
at last summer's Paris Air Show as the previously unannounced Grob G 180 SPn
Utility Jet.
A couple of meetings were set up with 80-year-old Dr
Burkhart Grob to discuss such an airplane, Olver explains. "Dr Grob had
previously said that his life would be fulfilled if he could build a jet to do
a real job. It was like a meeting of minds and this is the result. Grob has a
very strong 'can do,' culture, and because both our companies are privately
owned, business decisions can be made very quickly."
The current plan is for the SPn to gain EASA single-pilot
certification by first quarter 2007, followed by FAA qualification and customer
deliveries in the second quarter of that year.
ExecuJet has been appointed sole worldwide sales and
maintenance organization for the SPn. The company has five FBO bases on three
continents and is corporate aircraft sales agent for Bombardier and Pilatus, in
addition to managing 80 corporate aircraft and running maintenance facilities
around the world. "We will have a single OEM environment and sales support
backup, for this, the world's first all-composite executive jet," declares
Olver.
Integral to the SPn's appeal will be a balanced field length
of 3,000 ft; easy maintenance; quick-change cabin; and ability to cruise at
41,000 ft at 407 KTAS. The standard executive cabin layout is for eight seats
in double club configuration. With single pilot and IFR reserves, range is
predicted at 1,670 nmi. Grob is currently looking for likely grass runway sites
in Germany from which to flight-test the aircraft.
The fact that Olver is South African born explains his
passion for an executive utility jet that has the ability fly off dirt strips.
"I've flown Learjets out of dirt strips, and in my opinion
if the strip is long enough and hard enough then you are safer than in a twin
turboprop, especially during take-off," he says.
By December of this year ExecuJet has to make a decision on
how to proceed with SPn distribution, sales and support in the U.S. "It could
include buying up a network of service centers and FBOs and incorporating them
into ExecuJet," Olver says. "Another option is to appoint ourselves, or appoint
worthy distributors, to offer sales and support."
Both Grob and ExecuJet say that the SPn's first (part) year
production of 15 aircraft is already booked and that they are planning to
produce 40 aircraft per year thereafter. Olver reckons that with the SPn priced
at under $7.2 million, South Africa, Australia the Far East, China and the CIS
are prime sales areas.
"We expect to sell more of the purely corporate aircraft in
central Europe, with most in North America, he told Show News. "With South
Africa being the largest market in Africa, I will be very surprised if we don't
sell five or six aircraft per year there. We don't regard the SPn Utility Jet
as a flying pickup truck, but more of a flying SUV — like the BMW X-5 or
Volkswagen's Touareg."
ExecuJet has a small presence here at NBAA this year, but
both ExecuJet and Grob will be at the Convention in force in 2006. "We plan to
fly-in a SPn and display a full-sized cabin mock-up (next year)," Olver
disclosed.
