The term very light jet (VLJ) is likely to be a buzzword at
NBAA again, as Eclipse and Cessna draw ever nearer to bringing products to
market, and Embraer discloses more details of and names its upcoming contender
in this latest sector of the business jet spectrum.
But there's one VLJ that's available now, fly-away: the
French- built MS 760 Paris, marketed as the Paris Jet by Your Aircraft Source
LLC (Booth 5133), based at Calhoun Airport near Atlanta, GA.
The Paris Jet is a pressurized four-seater, with a big
sliding canopy, T-tail, tiptanks, and a pair of 1,058-pounds-thrust Turbomeca
Marboré VI turbojets that hustle it along at more than 400 mph at 20,000 feet
over a 1,330-mile range.
Your Aircraft Source marketing manager Jean-Pierre Lake told
Show News that the company "has bought every Paris airframe that has come on
the market," including 20 ex-French Air Force airplanes and several formerly
operated by the Dutch National Flying School, whose Parises were used to train
pilots for the Dutch airline KLM. Unlike the military airplanes the Dutch
Parises had de-icing equipment.
Earlier this year Your Aircraft Source announced selection
of Chelton Flight Systems (Booth 1881) to supply an all-glass cockpit for the Paris.
Available in three levels of equipment, the Chelton cockpit features a primary
flight display with 3-D perspective terrain modeling anywhere in the world,
real time GPS/WAAS positioning and Highway-In- The-Sky (HITS) predictive flight director guidance
from take-off to touchdown.
Chelton's autopilot interface can guide the aircraft through
departure procedures and STARs, arc approaches, procedure turns and even
complex holding pattern entries with no pilot action. Complete approaches can
be flown without ever touching the controls, Chelton claims. A moving-map
display on the secondary display screen provides situational awareness with
integration of navigation elements, air data, terrain and traffic
simultaneously on a single screen.
Russ Garn of eye4design has been commissioned to devise
paint schemes for the Paris Jet.
To date Your Aircraft Source has completed four Paris
upgrades and has two more in the works.
"Our company vision is simple," says Your Aircraft Source.
"We want to help you own and operate one of the most affordable light business
jets ever made. For over 50 years the MS 760 has been ahead of its time. With
the development of the Eclipse and Cessna Mustang, this technology built with
slide rules and ingenuity still holds it own."
Fly away prices for this pioneering bizjet are Nav I package
$479,000, Nav II $549,000 and Nav III $679,000.
