An Hour of 'Perfect'

We have some great News Spies. Here's what we found out, about the Sino-Swearingen SJ30-2 test flight program, which resumed Monday: Chuck Walls was pilot; Rob Kromer was flying right seat. Somewhere back there was Sino-Swearingen Flight Test Engineer, Schuyler Horn.

When we talked to the shop, we got confirmation: "They were up for about an hour -- lifted off at 16:35 today -- retracted gear, flaps, did all the tests--stuff like that."

How high, how fast? It wasn't a 'record run,' but it was a decent flight: "We went about 10,000 feet, and 230 to 250 knots," we heard.

Back in the air. It feels so good.

"This is the first flight since we restarted the test flying," said Sino-Swearingen's VP of Marketing, Gene Comfort, the first man we could find who would speak for the record. "It had flown before -- it's S/N 3." In fact, it was flown, just for the confidence such a flight brings. #3 was set to receive all kinds of test equipment, in a planned down-time. All that equipment must also be tested and calibrated -- time-consuming and sometimes frustrating; but absolutely necessary.

Gene explained, "We flew it once or twice, then we put all this flight test equipment in it." As for the flight -- on the record? "Everything went exceptionally well -- the pilots were overjoyed."

Lots to do:

There's an aggressive flight test program, to cover a lot of ground. "The flight test equipment -- and flaps, gear, pressurizartion -- we'll be flying this machine 7 days a week," Comfort predicted. "We'll fly tomorrow, and keep flying it as long as the weather's good."

But wait -- there's more:

There are more test machines almost ready. "S/N 4 is so close -- it will fly shortly." Gene told us they've been hiring test pilots, too: "Mark Elwess -- he tested the JetCruzer 450 to certification; he's a Challenger pilot, a helicopter pilot; he belongs to Experimental Test Pilots Association. We're even hiring additional pilots and flight engineers."

"We'll get into aggressive night flying soon." That regimen will be mostly to test cruise performance, range, perhaps icing; maneuvering tests, flutter tests -- they're done in the daylight, for obvious reasons.

...and S/N 5? "...is at Martinsburg (WV) -- we have the wiring here, ready -- we're looking at fixtures -- they're finishing up a lot of parts -- we're ready." The wing and fuselage are made in West Virginia; most of the rest is made at the main plant in San Antonio (TX).

Fast enough for ya?

The SJ30 was designed to be fast -- just look at the sweep of that wing for a clue. How fast? "We're going to put a model in a supersonic wind tunnel, to help find out -- make sure we're OK with everything," Gene revealed. "When we find out what happened on the Vd (dive) test, we'll resume testing there, also." [Sino-Swearingen lost Chief Test Pilot Carroll Beeler and its first machine earlier this year, to an as-yet officially unexplained high-speed problem --ed.]

Who's the market?

Gene didn't pull any punches: "I personally believe we're going to revolutionize the light jet market with this one."

FMI: www.sj30jet.com