Maben and the other three test pilots were logging more hours on the A700, checking the plane at slow speeds to see at what point it would stall out, and, as Maben puts it with "right stuff" understatement, "getting the speed envelope opened up even more, opening up the G envelope."
The team would treat the first A700 as a kind of airborne proof-of-concept, using it to make small adjustments to the design before they begin building planes for customers.
But for all the bravado and triumph of the A700's unexpected descent on the Oshkosh air show, some industry watchers doubt that will ever happen. "I've seen an endless string of great designs for personal jets since the 1980s," says Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at the Teal Group in Virginia. None has made it to completion. "Building jet aircraft is a business that's biased against newcomers," Aboulafia explains. "I think the incumbent player will win, unless someone else pulls off a near miracle."
The incumbent player is Cessna. Incorporated in 1927, it's working on a personal jet called the Mustang. It'll cost $2.3 million, but it won't reach the market until at least 2006. Aboulafia also questions whether the availability of a cheaper jet will spur large numbers of new jet purchases, though he does agree that some owners of turboprop planes will decide to upgrade.
Rick Adam remains confident. "We'll be [FAA] certified in the second half of next year, and delivering jets toward the end," he says. "The other guys, Cessna and Eclipse, have helped us by creating demand, and they've taken hundreds of deposits between them. Everyone agrees there's a market there. If our plane gets certified first, we get to fill the demand that Cessna and Eclipse created."
Around the time that the A700 heads into the plodding, detail-oriented certification stage, the engineers at Adam Aircraft will be itching to start work on another project. "We know what we're going to do next," says Dennis Olcott. "We've got some easy projects in mind, and some hard ones. We don't want to just turn into a production house. We want to keep innovating. A year from now, we'll have another model flying."
But for now, Adam Aircraft prefers to keep it a surprise. nFC
Contributing editor Scott Kirsner (techwriter@fastcompany.com) writes about technology from Boston.
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