Cirrus Vision SF50


The Cirrus Vision SF50, also known as the Vision Jet, is a single-engine very light jet designed and produced by Cirrus Aircraft of Duluth, Minnesota, United States.
After receiving deposits starting in 2006, Cirrus unveiled an aircraft mock-up on 28 June 2007 and a prototype on 26 June 2008. It made its maiden flight on 3 July 2008. Development slowed in 2009 due to lack of funding. In 2011, Cirrus was bought by CAIGA, a Chinese enterprise that funded the project a year later. The first conforming prototype subsequently flew on 24 March 2014, followed by two other prototypes that same year. The test flying program resulted in the US Federal Aviation Administration awarding a type certificate on 28 October 2016. Deliveries started on 19 December 2016, and by July 2020, 200 jets had been delivered. It has been the world's best-selling business jet every year since 2018.
Powered by a Williams FJ33 turbofan, the all-carbon fiber, low-wing, seven-seat Vision SF50 is pressurized, cruises at and has a range of over. For emergency uses, it has both a whole-airframe ballistic parachute and autoland system.
Reviews have compared its performance to high-performance single-turboprop aircraft. In 2018, the Vision Jet was awarded the Collier Trophy for the "greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America" during the preceding year, being the first certified single-engine civilian jet.

Development

Naming

From June 2006 to July 2008, the design was developed under the project name "The Jet", or "The-Jet by Cirrus". On 9 July 2008, Cirrus announced the marketing name of "Vision SJ50", with "V" for the V-tail and "SJ" for "single-jet". By March 2009, the aircraft was re-designated "Vision SF50", as it uses a single-fanjet engine.
By April 2016, Cirrus was calling it the "Vision Jet" and on 28 October 2016, it was certified by the FAA under the name "Model SF50".

Early development

The company began initial development on the jet in 2003, led by Cirrus founders the Klapmeier brothers and their vice president of advanced development Mike Van Staagen, at an offsite Duluth, Minnesota location they called the "Moose Works”, a parody on Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs dubbed the "Skunk Works".
The jet was announced by Cirrus in June 2006 at the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association meeting.
At the October 2006 NBAA Convention, Cirrus detailed its single jet program to solicit US$100,000 deposits from potential customers, targeting a price below $1 million and a 2010 certification, for a cruise speed around with a Williams FJ33 and a whole-airplane parachute recovery system.
Cirrus described it as the "slowest, lowest, and cheapest jet available."
In early 2007 the company gave deposit holders a drawing of the aircraft in the form of a jigsaw puzzle, one piece at a time. On 27 June 2007, the puzzle was completed and the aircraft mock-up was unveiled the following day. Starting at this time it became described as a "personal jet".
In September the L-3 SmartDeck avionics package was selected for the jet development.
On 27 December, Cirrus Design leased a former Northwest Airlines hangar at Duluth International Airport in which to build the design.
By 22 May 2008, the company had 400 refundable deposits of US$100,000.
The prototype was first shown publicly at the annual Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association Cirrus Migration on 26 June 2008.

Initial flight tests

The Vision Jet was first flown on 3 July 2008 at the Duluth airport. It was then flown at AirVenture Oshkosh later that month.
By 3 December, the prototype had flown 120 hours, exploring the whole center of gravity envelope, testing engine in-flight shut-down and restart and aerodynamic stall characteristics. The right side door was replaced by an emergency egress hatch to save weight on production aircraft. Based on test flights and computer models, the aerodynamic design was modified to increase performance and improve the engine thrust angle. The production aircraft was planned to have a more pointed nose, larger belly section, redesigned wing-root fairing, reduced tail sweep and a larger or dual ventral fin.
The aircraft's payload was planned to be with full fuel, based on an expectation of owners often flying long trips solo. Range was targeted for and maximum cruise speed for. An FAA type certificate was to be applied for by mid-December 2008, with EASA certification delayed by uncertainty over positioning in the European market. It was decided by the company that pilot training would be required in the aircraft type certificate, like the Eclipse 500. However, this was not written into the final type certificate. The aircraft's base price was US$1 million in 2008 and its equipped price was anticipated to be US$1.25 million for 2011 deliveries.
On 31 March 2009, Cirrus confirmed that the Garmin G1000 avionics had been selected for the SF50 production aircraft. In mid June 2009, L-3 Communications sued Cirrus for US$18M over the cancellation of its previously selected avionics.

Financing difficulties

In 2009, during the height of the Great Recession, progress on the program slowed significantly. By the end of June, Cirrus co-founder and former CEO Alan Klapmeier proposed buying the project from the company and its major shareholder Arcapita, to speed up development and produce it under a new company, which would be advised by Merrill Lynch.
On 26 July, Alan's brother and fellow Cirrus co-founder Dale Klapmeier came out in support of his efforts and said that Alan was the only person Cirrus would consider letting take over the jet program.
Cirrus stated that financing the project was necessary to complete certification and commence production, either at the company or with Alan Klapmeier.
However, on 31 July, Alan announced that the offer did not meet Arcapita's or Cirrus’ expectations. In August, he left the company while Dale remained, effectively ending the formal 25-year business partnership between the Klapmeier brothers.
By July 2009, 200 hours of flight tests had been completed and the resulting design changes had been incorporated, including an X-tail, simpler and lighter flaps, and handling changes to induce a pitch up when applying thrust. Although some deposits had been refunded during the economic recession, Cirrus still had nearly 400 orders and anticipated first deliveries in 2012, subject to capital funding. On 2 September, Cirrus announced its price: US$1.39M for deposit holders, equipped similar to a Cirrus SR22 GTS, US$1.55M with a US$100,000 deposit before the end of the year, and US$1.72M after that, with a US$50,000 deposit. In November 2009, following additional test flights, development slowed again due to the lack of capital, delaying deliveries past 2012. Cirrus’ leased space in the ex-Northwest hangar in Duluth closed around this time as well, caused by shrinking sales.
By January 2010, the prototype had accumulated 236 hours, while the certification and delivery timeline was reliant on cash flow, as 428 orders were backlogged and growing by one or two per week. By early June, the then-US$1.72M jet had 431 orders, with deposits becoming non-refundable at the beginning of that year. A conforming prototype was expected to be completed by the end of 2010 and fly by the end of 2011, targeting a mid-2013 certification date, while developing the "high-risk" full-aircraft parachute system.

CAIGA investment

In April 2012, Cirrus's new owner CAIGA invested enough in the project to secure its development, previously estimated at $150 million. By July 2012, the prototype had flown 600 hours in almost 600 flights and the company was ready to build the composite construction tooling required for a conforming prototype, expected to fly in late 2013 for type certification testing.
By February 2013 the company was hiring staff to produce the aircraft, now priced at US$1.96M. In April, the new prototype roll-out date was announced for 2013. Certification flight testing was scheduled to start in 2014. In October 2013, three test aircraft were under construction, the first deliveries were scheduled for 2015 and the order book now held 500 deposits. By then the first conforming aircraft was to fly in early 2014.

Final flight tests

By February 2014, 800 hours of test flying had been completed. On 24 March 2014, the first conforming prototype flew. The prototype was displayed at the Oshkosh Airshow that summer. Pre-orders of the $1.96 million jet then numbered 550 and Cirrus intended to produce up to 125 aircraft per year. The second conforming test aircraft flew in November 2014. The third and final conforming test aircraft made its first flight on 20 December 2014.
In February 2015 the city of Duluth, Minnesota committed US$6M and had asked the state of Minnesota to contribute US$4M to build a US$10M factory that would be leased to Cirrus to produce the jet, to avoid the company moving the manufacturing operation elsewhere. In April 2015, confident the certification would be on schedule and no modifications needed, Cirrus started production of the first of its 550 orders for the design. In September, the Cirrus Perspective Touch glass cockpit by Garmin was finalized, featuring one primary flight display and one multi-function display, with three smaller touchscreen controllers located underneath.
By January 2016, certification had been delayed from 2015 to the first half of 2016 due to in-flight ballistic parachute testing. In March, it was announced that in-flight parachute deployment tests were not required by the Federal Aviation Administration for certification.
On 5 May 2016, the first production aircraft flew and certification was then forecast for June. The Williams FJ33-5A engine was approved by the FAA on 6 June 2016. Certification was then planned for the end of the same month. By July, the SF50 had over 600 orders, the four flight test aircraft had flown more than 1,700 hours and certification had been delayed to the fourth quarter of the year.
On 28 October, after a ten-year development process marked with myriad technical and financial challenges, the SF50 earned its type certificate from the FAA. The design became the first civilian, single-engine jet to be type certified.