VisionAire has made a number of significant changes to its Vantage business jet with an eye to meeting the performance goals originally promised to customers.

The re-design will maintain the promised performance specifications of the original Vantage concept, the company says. These include a 350-knot cruise speed at FL350, a 900-nmi range and the ability to operate from 2,500-ft runways.

Modifications to the single-engine, all-composite aircraft include a longer wing with reduced forward sweep, a thinner airfoil and the addition of a Fowler flap and spoiler, while the entire wing assembly has been moved slightly to the rear.

The size of the vertical tail was increased for additional stability, while the horizontal tail was moved aft to improve handling and spin recovery characteristics.

The landing gear will now incorporate a trailing link design for smoother landings, and be housed in the wings instead of the fuselage. Fuel displaced by the move will be carried in the longer wings, and in an additional fuselage tank.

The aircraft's single Pratt & Whitney JT15D-5 engine will be replaced by the slightly more powerful (150-pounds-thrust more) D-5D variant.

The engine will be moved 20 inches aft and five inches up to minimize duct curvature and the "ice impingement area" -- and thus the amount of power required by the aircraft's anti-ice system.
The instrument panel will feature liquid-crystal-digital (LCD) displays. VisionAire plans to disclose its avionics suppliers -- and details of a plan to sell Vantage ownership shares -- later this week.

The multi-spliced, reinforced fuselage structure used on the Vantage prototype will be replaced by a "totally integrated" single-piece fuselage.

Overseeing the design changes is Joe Furnish, a former Dee Howard, Cessna and Beechcraft executive now managing the Vantage program.

The next stage, Furnish says, is wind tunnel testing. VisionAire recently contracted the Seattle-based ModelWerks to design and build a two-dimensional airfoil/flap model, to be followed by a complete, 1/8-scale stability and control model.

Production of the "VT-1," the first pre-production test article, is planned for the next 11 months, with VT-2--the FAA conformal test aircraft--following eight months later.

VisionAire hopes to have nine production aircraft ready for customer delivery once FAA certification is received, at a price of $2.195 million each. The company claims 125 firm orders for the Vantage, though around 13 orders were lost when the re-design was announced.