26 | Flight International | 17-23 February 2015 flightglobal.com
GENERAL AVIATION
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D
iscovery Aviation has
launched production of its
new, improved XL-2, nine months
after the three-year-old company
acquired the rights to the instru-
ment flight rules-certificated pis-
ton single from Liberty Aerospace.
The two-seat, low-wing type,
which is based on the British-de-
signed Europa kit plane, is being
manufactured at Liberty’s former
base in Melbourne, Florida. “So
far we have around 20 orders for
the XL-2,” says Discovery Avia-
tion’s co-founder and chief exec-
utive, Rick Cunliffe. “We plan to
deliver the first aircraft in May.”
The new-generation XL-2 fea-
tures a redesigned interior and
choice of Garmin flightdecks. It is
powered by a Continental IOF-
240B engine with full authority
digital engine control.
Cunliffe says the XL-2 is “prov-
ing popular” with flying schools
and private owners. The key bene-
fits, he says, “remain its low cost of
acquisition [at around $240,000],
operation and maintenance”.
“It is also one of the most tech-
nologically advanced training
aircraft available,” Cunliffe adds.
Meanwhile, Discovery is hop-
ing to secure US certification for
N
PP Zvezda, a Russian com-
pany well known for aviation
and space life support systems in
its homeland, has patented a
lightweight ejection seat for gen-
eral aviation aircraft.
In-flight escape from light air-
craft is difficult, slow and risky,
and as a result most do not rou-
tinely carry parachutes, relying
instead on the pilot making a suc-
cessful forced landing. The rea-
son the ejection seat is not used in
general aviation is the unit’s com-
plexity, high price and weight.
The NPP Zvezda unit, however,
weighs only 16kg (35lb), claims the
company. Unlike military seats,
most of which rely on an initial ac-
celeration provided by explosive
cartridges, followed by rocket
thrust to continue acceleration out-
side the aircraft, its device is accel-
erated by high pressure air from a
cylinder directed into a metal tele-
scopic ram integrated with the seat.
The pneumatic system releases
catches to eject the cockpit cano-
py, then pushes the seat upward,
the ram extending out into the
slipstream, until the seat and its
occupant is clear of the tailplane.
Then a drogue chute automatical-
ly deploys and pulls the parachute
out into the passing air. The whole
sequence, says the company, takes
“less than a second”. ■T
raining provider ChelAvia has
become the first company in
Russia to get approval to operate
the Tecnam P2006T commercially.
Italy-based Tecnam is hoping
the endorsement will help drive
up sales of its only in-production
piston twin and convince existing
owners and operators of the high-
wing type to consider other uses or
revenue streams for their aircraft.
This approval, Tecnam says,
“supports our goal of promoting
the four-seat P2006T for air taxi
and charter operations, having
firmly established the light twin
as the multi-engine choice of ae-
ro-clubs, flying schools, syndi-
cates and private aircraft owners
around the world”.
Some P2006 customers in
Malta and Indonesia have al-
ready secured an aircraft opera-
tor’s certificate to fly their aircraft
commercially, while other own-
ers of the type in Poland, theUPGRADE KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
New-generation XL-2 starts
production under Discovery
Ex-Liberty model gets interior redesign as manufacturer eyes US approval for twin-engined 201
its model 201 twin-engined utili-
ty aircraft in the second quarter.
“We are almost there,” Cun-
liffe says. “We just have to com-
plete dynamic seat testing. Once
we have approval we will open
the orderbook.”
Production of the high-wing
type – an upgraded version of the
18-year-old Russian-designed
Avia Accord 201 – will run along-
side the XL-2 in Melbourne, but a
second facility will be built if de-
mand for both types is strong
enough, Cunliffe adds.“With its rugged, versatile de-
sign, short field capability, a
price tag of under $1 million and
seating for up to seven people, it
will have widespread appeal
across a range of markets, in-
cluding passenger and cargo
transport and parachute jump-
ing,” he adds.
The Garmin glass cockpit-
equipped, Continental IO-
360ES7-powered 201 can be
equipped with fixed landing gear
or retractable floats, allowing it to
operate from land or water. ■PISTON TWINS KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
Russian clearance allows
P2006T to go commercial
Czech Republic and South Amer-
ica are looking to follow suit, Tec-
nam adds.
The P2006T entered service in
2010 and the majority of the 160
aircraft in service today are used
for private flying and training.ChelAvia – already one of Tec-
nam’s largest customers with
nearly 90 of the airframer’s sin-
gle- and twin-engined types in its
fleet – plans to use some of its
dozen P2006s for passenger and
freight transportation. ■The Tecnam type is powered by two Rotax 912S3 enginesSAFETY DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDONPatent progress
for lightweight
ejection seat
Modifications to the type include a choice of Garmin flightdecksDiscovery AviationTecnam