A-700 Jet to Fly Any Day Now

"You just can't wait for a press conference, can you?" asked a happy John Knudsen, president of Adam Aircraft, as we asked him for more details on this week's planned first flight of the long-awaited A-700 jet.

We are putting together as much as we can, from ANN News-Spies; what we're getting is a little here, and a little there. What it adds up to is a daring move by Denver-area Adam Aircraft, which has, for years, been massaging what started as a Rutan special design (remember the "A-309" nomenclature?) into a cabin-class centerline piston twin. That design, the A500, has been flying for just over a year.

This design is the A700, and it's a twin jet. Although it is similar in planform to the A500, the A700 has a pair of rear-mounted Williams FJ-33 engines providing the motive power. Part of the "boldness" to which we refer has to do with those powerplants. New airplane, with new engines.

'First flight' applies to a lot...

The -33 is the big brother to the -22 series, which was reluctantly pulled from the Eclipse jet after brief flight trials a year ago. As Ron Schwedland, Director, Business Development at Williams International told us, the FJ-33 is more-importantly, "...the smaller brother to the successful and certified FJ-44 series engine, which has proven itself on the CJ-1 (where over a million and a half hours have been flown); and CJ-2, as well as Premier I and Sino-Swearingen SJ30-2 (which use the newer, more-powerful FJ-44-2).

 Ron continued, noting successes of the FJ-44 series: "They're also seen in completed STCs on the 'Eagle 44' modification of the Citation I, now handled by Garrett Aviation. Also, Spirit Wing (in Edmund, OK) is working on Lear 24-25 series STCs, to replace the old GE CJ-610-series engines, which will soon be banned from many airports, because of their legendary noise." There's one more engine in the FJ-44 series, and the Cessna CJ-3 will run the FJ-44-3 engines, starting deliveries next year.

Mr. Schwedland noted, "The -33 is a unique engine, designed to be a 'smaller -44-2;' where the FJ44-2 is a 2400 lb class engine, the -33 is designed to make about 1500. We had such high confidence in the design, we started on production tooling. It's due to be certified this year." (Javelin, Safire, and Maverick have also announced their use of the FJ-33.)

Adam Aircraft can't wait to get us some in-air shots...

FMI: www.adamaircraft.com; www.williams-int.com/product/33.htm