QUART ERLY - P.I. 21/07 /2017 Intern ationa l € 10, Spedizione in Abbon Chf 10,50 , UK £ 7,50 Poste Italian e S.p.a. amento Postale - 70% - LO/MI
J A D E I S S U E
JADE ISSUE - n° 11 - 2017 - € 10
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The Art of Sailing
[ FLY ]
A VISION
OF THE PRESENT by Sergio Barlocchetti – foto Cirrus Aircraft
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After years in the making, the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet is designed to be flown by the owner. As fast as the biggest business jets, it has a plush sophisticated cabin for a superlative flying experience
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n aviation’s 100-year-plus history, the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet is the first single-engine personal jet to actually achieve market viability. Many manufacturers have tried and many have failed with this particular type of aircraft, not least the Italians as far back as 1955. The latter were simply too far ahead of the times and one big stumbling block has always been that mini-jets tend to be too complex for private pilots in particular to handle. Undeterred, Cirrus Aircraft embarked on its SF50 programme 11 years ago. Now it has just launched a fiveseater aircraft that is easy to pilot, thanks to its single piston engine, yet can almost match the performance of a business jet. Normally, owners who want to pilot their own business jet have to lodge long flight plans and be skilled enough to deal with high approach and landing speeds. The SF50, on the other hand, has a minimum flight speed of 67 knots (just 124 km/h) and user-friendly touchscreen avionics and side-stick controls. Essentially, anyone who shells out a little over two million dollars to purchase the Vision will find themselves flying an aircraft far more straightforward than many of the models used to train pilots for their licences. Most private aircraft flights are under two hours and do not involve the highest altitudes that larger business
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The SF50 Vision Jet can seat up to five people in a cabin that has the look and feel of a luxury SUV, thanks to leather modular seating, large windows for exceptional visibility and air conditioning with climate control
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jets can get up to. So the Vision can outdo even turboprops for personal
Although this is a simple aircraft to fly, single-turbofans are thin on
hops. It may not have the prop but it still has have air conditioning,
the ground, so there is a huge focus on client training with a full-
plush seats and flies at 300 knots with a service ceiling of under 30,000
motion simulator available to the latter in both the US and Europe
feet. Most importantly, it can take off from air strips of just 600 metres.
to work through all aspects and functions. This includes, of course,
The five-person cabin is similar to a premium SUV in terms of size
the whole-aircraft Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), which
and luxury spec. While it doesn’t have a 32” entertainment screen,
can be deployed in under five seconds by pulling the CAPS handle, to
the interior is well up to the standard of a Citation or a Learjet, and
allow both plane and occupants to make it safely back to earth in an
actually has the feel of a Porsche Cayenne.
emergency. www. cirrusaircraft.com
The SF50 Vision Jet’s biggest selling point is its simplicity. It’s easy to pilot, thanks to touchscreen avionics and sidesticks and has a minimum flight speed of just 67 knots, which makes approach and landing easier
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