Recent news
New Gulfstream jets' flight deck looks like a sci-fi spaceship cockpit
Jesus Diaz October 2014
Gulfstream has new jets, the G500 and G600. They can fly at almost supersonic speed and come with lots of new cool stuff, like a new cabin that is supposed to make you feel like you are not flying or this new glass cockpit called Symmetry—which looks out of some sci-fi movie.
It looks to me like something out of Oblivion, perhaps because of the combination of the big glass windows and the all-LCD front.
The Symmetry glass controls are fully touchscreen, using large LCD displays that show a 3D color synthetic view of the outside world, so the crew always knows what's around them even in low visibility. It also has 2D and 3D airport moving maps, which show "runways, taxiways, airport structures and signs at many airports on the cockpit navigation displays, while the 3-D moving map integrates the Synthetic Vision System for an "out the window" view of the airport on the Primary Flight Display."
ICON Constructs and Flies First Production A5
Icon Aircraft July 2014
July 28, 2014 – Last night at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, ICON Aircraft unveiled the first production A5, an aircraft the company refers to as Engineering Serial Number 1 (ESN-1). This is the first A5 built from the production design, with production tooling, and using production methods and components. ESN-1 was built over a five-month period, from January to June of 2014, and successfully completed its first flight on July 7, 2014, in Tehachapi, California. This aircraft is one of three that will be used to verify performance and complete FAA approval prior to the start of customer deliveries in May of 2015.
ESN-1 was built at ICON’s facility in Tehachapi, California, and wears a one-off commemorative paint scheme to celebrate this significant milestone on the A5’s road to production. A second production prototype, ESN-2, is currently under construction and is scheduled for completion and structural testing this autumn. Click Here for Full Article
First Flight of Vision SF50 Jet ‘C-Zero’
Cirrus Aircraft March 2014
Duluth, Minn. (March 25, 2014) – Cirrus Aircraft announced today it has achieved a significant milestone in its Vision SF50 personal jet program with the successful first flight of certification aircraft ‘C-Zero’ (C0). The SF50 is a seven seat, pressurized, single engine jet and the newest airplane in Cirrus’ line of composite high performance personal aircraft.
As part of a series of evaluations to meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification, the newest airplane in the development program underwent rigorous ground tests before taking off from the Duluth International Airport at approximately 5PM CDT on Monday, March 24th, 2014. Cirrus Aircraft Director of Engineering Flight Test and Chief Test Pilot Mike Stevens flew C0 on a one-hour sortie and reported, “The Vision Jet handled and performed very well and all systems functioned properly, just what you want in a first flight. Congratulations to the entire team on today’s accomplishment."
