Says Dynasty Turboprop To Be Canadian Certified In Q4 2008

The 2007 fly-in season kicks off in just over a month from now... and the folks at Epic AIR tell ANN they'll unveil two new aircraft on the opening day of this year's event in Lakeland, FL.

"Well let me just say that together they will have two engines, one spinner and 16 windows," said Epic CEO Rick Schrameck.

This won't the first time Epic has teased the aviation community... as the company made a similar announcement at AirVenture 2003, when Schrameck displayed artists' concepts of its six-seat, pressurized Epic LT turboprop. Twelve months later, he flew the completed aircraft to Oshkosh for AirVenture 2004.

"Quick implementation of aircraft designs is Epic's history," Schrameck said. The company states both new aircraft to be unveiled April 17 at Lakeland began as clean-sheet designs in December 2006. Schrameck added at least one of these planes will fly into Oshkosh this year.

At the end of 2006, Epic announced it would certify its experimental LT turboprop as the Epic Dynasty, under Canadian rules. The newly formed Canadian Centre for Aircraft Certification (CCAC) and Epic formed a joint effort to develop an economical and expedient certification process.

Epic says its experiences with the new Canadian testing facility will be of benefit to all airframe manufactures seeking CAR and FAR 23 certification. The CAR and FAR regulations are nearly identical, Epic notes, and the two countries share reciprocity agreements.

To date, the Epic LT (shown below) has logged 2000 hours of mission and flight tests. The company states most of the flight tests are directly applicable to the Dynasty Certification program, scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2008. The company plans to certify its twin-engine Elite Jet VLJ in parallel with the Dynasty certification program, and expects to come to market late 2009 or early 2010.

An experimental version of the Elite jet will be available sometime this year.

FMI: www.epicaircraft.com