flight international

BUSINESS AVIATION

fiightglobal.com 8-14 March 2016 | Flight International | 25

Generation gap

COVER STORY P 26

S

ervice entry of Piper Air-

craft’s M600 single-engined

turboprop has been pushed back

to the third quarter of this year,

due to “challenges” with the cer-

tification process.

The six-seat aircraft was

launched by the US airframer in

April 2015, and had originally

been scheduled to enter service

late last year.

Sitting at the top of Piper’s nine-

strong, propeller-driven line-up,

the M600 is based on the M500

turboprop-single platform, with a

redesigned wing, advanced digital

fuel management technologies

and a restyled interior.

“We unveiled the M600 with a

promise to our customers that it

would have a minimum payload

range of 1,200nm [2,220km] and

a 250kt (463km/h) [calibrated air-

speed] Vmo [maximum operating

speed],” says Piper chief execu-

tive Simon Caldecott.

“We had been unable to reach

the 250kt Vmo sweet spot during

flight testing, so have had to

make some modifications to the

D

elays in developing the Snec-

ma Silvercrest engine set to

power Dassault’s Falcon 5X busi-

ness jet cost Safran a one-off €654

million ($720 million) charge last

year, resulting in a 12% drop in

operating profit for the French

company, to €1.7 billion.

During its 2015 annual earn-

ings call on 25 February, Safran

confirmed Silvercrest certifica-

tion is now 18 months behind

schedule and the 5X – the launch

platform for the powerplant – is

set to make its first flight in 2017.

European and US certification

for the clean-sheet, widebody

twinjet are earmarked for 2019,

leading to service entry in 2020.

Snecma has carried out more

than 500h of flight tests on a Gulf-

stream GII testbed and a further

3,500h of ground testing. These

have revealed “the need to carry

out additional developments” to

optimise its performance, says

the company. Engine certifica-

tion is now anticipated in the first

half of 2018. ■

U

S start-up XTi Aircraft has ex-

tended by a month the win-

dow for crowdfunding stakehold-

ers to invest in its TriFan 600

vertical take-off and landing busi-

ness aircraft, and says it will estab-

lish an over-the-counter secondary

market to allow current and future

shareholders to buy and sell XTi

shares on the open market.

The Denver-based firm re-

ceived approval on 21 January

from the US Securities and Ex-

change Commission to convert

the pledges raised through

crowdfunding website starten-

gine.com into shares.

“We had received 2,000 ex-

pressions of interest totalling

around $20 million when the

funding window opened in late

January,” says XTi founder and

chairman David Brody. “Many of

these have been converted into

shares and we now plan to close

the first round of equity crowd

funding in the middle of April.”

In 2005, Brody founded AVX

Aircraft, which he says has been

heavily involved in ducted fan

technology for use in military

and civilian aircraft, and has been

bankrolling the TriFan 600 pro-

gramme since its inception three

years ago.

“I am now focused on the Tri-

Fan 600 configuration,” says

Brody, who is also a popular sci-

ence author and laywer. “I am pas-

sionate about aircraft, science and

technology. This is going to be a

game-changing aircraft that com-

bines the speed, range and comfort

of a business jet with the ability to

take-off and land like a helicopter.”

The conceptual design phase

is complete, he says, with the

programme now ready to move

on to the preliminary design.

To fund the next phase of de-

velopment, XTi is seeking to

raise between $70 million and

$80 million through equity

crowd funding, institutional in-

vestment and from high net-

worth individuals.

To increase the company’s ap-

peal to investors, Brody says it

will offer stakeholders an oppor-

tunity to trade their XTi shares

on the secondary market as the

firm expands.

XTi aims to roll-out the first

TriFan 600 prototype in three

years, with certification to take an

additional four years. ■

Roll-out of vertical take-off and

landing type is slated for 2019

XTi extends opportunity to lift its TriFan investment

BACKING KATE SARSFIELD LONDON

XTi Aircraft

ENGINES

KATE SARSFIELD LONDON

Safran profits

down $720m on

Silvercrest hitch

DEVELOPMENT KATE SARSFIELD LONDON

M600 service entry delayed

Target revised to third quarter, as certification troubles lead to wing structure modifications

internal wing structure.”

The M600 has, however, ex-

ceeded its range guarantee by over

240nm, Caldecott reveals, and this

“now stands at 1,441nm”.

Flight testing is set to resume

shortly, and Piper is confident

the modified aircraft will match

its other performance pledges.

“The 250kt Vmo was particularly

important for our owners, as they

wanted the extra speed when

coming in to land, especially

when they are being tailed by one

of the ‘big boys’ from Boeing and

Airbus,” says Caldecott.

The Pratt & Whitney Canada

PT6A-42A-powered M600 has a

maximum take-off weight of

2,720kg (6,000lb) and a cruise

speed of 274kt (true airspeed).

Pitched against Daher’s TBM

900, the $2.85 million flagship

is also the first turboprop plat-

form to feature the Garmin

G3000 flightdeck. ■

Piper Aircraft

Launched in 2015, the

single-engined type is

Piper’s flagship aircraft

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