Sino Swearingen comes to Atlanta with the production-representative cabin mock-up of its six/seven-passenger SJ30-2 twinjet -- and with news of pre-series aircraft on the line at Gamesa's factory in Vitoria, Spain.

The company's order book now stands at 158, each backed by a $75,000 non-refundable deposit toward the $4.3 million price tag.

The restyled SJ30-2 club interior includes Connolly leather seats by Aeristo, complete with lateral tracking capability on the aft-facing positions. Extra-wide forward-facing seats are, as before, full-berthing, while cabinetry is finished in moon-dust gray pearlescent paint.

A forward fuselage assembly for the first of three flying pre-series and two static test aircraft arrived at San Antonio, Texas, in July. After completion with mid and aft sections and wings, due to follow in November and December, the first airplane will fly in March.

In parallel, initial work begins next month at the series-manufacturing plant at Martinsburg, WV. This new 87,500 sq. ft. facility will also assemble components from Gamesa Aeronautica, allowing launch customers to receive their airplanes from spring 2001.

Certification has been speeded by the first prototype, which has flown some 370 hours in -2 configuration, 270 of them with the definitive Williams-Rolls FJ44-2A turbofans. Although aerodynamically representative, the No 1 airplane is not structurally the same as the production version, and it has been retired to storage at Martinsburg. FAA testing will be completed with the three pre-series machines.

Latest orders for the SJ30-2, totaling 17, come from three newly-appointed dealers: Tiger Air (Central Missouri Aviation) for the U.S. Central Plains, Air Affairs of Australia (also for New Zealand and adjacent islands) and CDC Aviation of South Africa for most of sub-equatorial Africa.

By Paul Jackson