Cirrus has restructured more than $13 million worth of loan and lease obligations related to its Grand Forks, N.D. production facility with that city’s Growth Fund. Cirrus employs approximately 90 people in Grand Forks who make composite component parts for its SR-series piston aircraft, which are then shipped to the company’s assembly line in Duluth, Minn.

Since 1996, Grand Forks has issued various bonds and loans in support of these activities, including construction of more than 160,000 sq ft of facilities. Cirrus made no loan or lease payments to Grand Forks during the second half of last year while negotiating the restructuring, talks Cirrus CEO Dale Klapmeier characterized as “tough but fair.”

The deferred payments amount to $442,704. Under the deal Cirrus will receive a “rent holiday” for the last six months of 2011 and a reduced rent through June 2012, at which time it will make a lump-sum payment to bring its loan current. Klapmeier called the new deal “reasonable.”

He said that the company plans to press on with its SF50 Vision jet program, which has attracted deposits for 480 airplanes and is “slowly ramping up.” Klapmeier said 20 engineers are currently working on the SF50 and that a revised timetable for the program likely will be issued within the next three months. “That is a long way from where we were in 2008 and where we would like to be with the staff on it [now],” he said, adding, “You will see tremendous progress over the next few months on the jet, and people will see the path we are on.

“It does take an enormous investment to get this thing [the SF50] going,” Klapmeier said. “Over the last three years we have been making progress on the program and reducing risk, but we have not been progressing toward certification in any meaningful way because we haven’t had the financial backing to do that.” He said Cirrus’s sale to Caiga, China Aviation Industry General Aircraft, in June for a reported $210 million, changed that. “Now we have a financial partner that has the ability and the desire to back a program like this and a vision of where aviation should go in the future internationally. They absolutely see the value in a small personal jet,” he said.

Klapmeier said the company continues to use the non-conforming prototype that first flew in 2008 as an active research test bed for various systems and plans to use it for natural icing testing this winter.

He downplayed press reports that Cirrus is planning to put a single-engine turboprop, possibly based on the Epic Escape, into production. Caiga bought the assets of bankrupt kitbuilder Epic Aircraft in 2010 for $4.3 million. These included various kit aircraft and production aircraft designs and prototype aircraft. Klapmeier said Caiga asked Cirrus “to evaluate the turboprop market” as part of a “long-term product plan.”

“There is nothing decided there,” he said, adding that the SF50 is the company’s top new product priority.

He said a team of Caiga managers regularly commutes to Cirrus headquarters in Duluth, but Caiga has yet to install any executives there permanently.

For 2011, sales of the company’s piston aircraft again declined, falling to 255 from 264 in 2010. Klapmeier said total company employment is approximately 490, down from 1,500 in 2008. However, he said the company is in “a much stronger financial position on those sales because of the strides in efficiency we have made to make these airplanes profitable at the lower [production] numbers. It is hard to [expand], or to shrink, a company to profitability, but I am definitely looking forward to [expanding] the company again.”

Klapmeier pointed to some recent bright spots for the company, including the sale of 25 SR-20 trainers to the U.S. Air Force Academy over the summer. He said the deal has spurred sales discussions with foreign militaries and could lead to future fleet sales.

Spurred by sluggish demand for light and midsize jets and the threat from Brazil’s Embraer, Cessna has enlarged its midsize cabin cross-section and refreshed one of the lightest jets it builds. The new contenders were revealed last fall in the form of the 680A Latitude midsize and the M2 update of the CJ1+. They compete with, respectively, the Embraer Legacy 450 (slated for certification in late 2014 and service entry in early 2015) and the Phenom 100 (in service since 2009). Since Cessna fully acknowledges that the Embraer airplanes are the primary competitors for its new entrants, it seems timely to hold up the companies’ offerings for a preliminary comparison.

Cessna plans to fly the Latitude in mid-2014, with FAA approval following in mid-2015 and entry into service in the second half of 2015, a few months behind Embraer’s timetable for the Legacy 450, followed by EASA certification in the first half of 2016. The timetable for the M2 has the prototype flying before the end of next month and entering certification testing in the third quarter, for type approval in the second quarter next year and first deliveries in the fourth quarter.

L-Class Warfare: Latitude Takes On Legacy 450

The Latitude’s Sovereign roots show outside in the wings and empennage, but the interior of the newly enlarged and sleeked fuselage reveals a Garmin cockpit, 72-inch stand-up headroom in a flat-floor cabin and bigger windows higher up the fuselage for a less hunched view of the world. Outside, sleeker nose lofting, curved windshield panels and subtle 787-style wingtip treatment distinguish the new airplane. The Latitude’s list price of $14.995 million (2011 $) positions it between its $12.295 million XLS+ and $16.995 million Sovereign stablemates and comfortably below the $16.47 million (2012 $) Legacy 450.

A pair of Pratt & Whitney Canada PW306D turbofans, each delivering 5,700 pounds of thrust, will power the Latitude; the Legacy 450 gets a pair of Honeywell HTF7500Es, each producing 6,080 pounds of thrust. The new Citation and the Legacy 450 share the same 45,000-foot ceiling, and time to FL430 will be 23 minutes for the Cessna and 22 minutes for the Embraer. Along with its 72-inch aisle height and flat floor, the Latitude passenger cabin is more than 21 feet long, yielding one foot to the Embraer; the Cessna’s external unpressurized baggage capacity is 120 cu ft, but internal baggage capacity has yet to be decided. Standard seating in the Cessna accommodates nine passengers in a single-club arrangement with a forward two-place side-mounted couch facing the door; the Legacy offers seven seats as standard and eight with an optional side-facing divan for two up front.

In the Latitude’s cockpit, the Garmin G5000 avionics will include three 14-inch-diagonal partitioned liquid-crystal displays, four touch-control screens and a Garmin autopilot, much like the suite intended for the Citation Ten. The Legacy 450 will have a Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion suite with SVS, autothrottle and full FBW as standard and HGS and EVS as options, and it will also come with full fly-by-wire flight controls.

Flight controls on the Latitude remain fully mechanical (no fly-by-wire), which Cessna justifies by citing simplicity and swifter certification. Embraer is already paying a price for embracing the additional complexity of FBW: it had planned to fly the 500 by the end of last year, but the first 500 did not roll out until December 23 and the first flight has now slipped until the third quarter this year due to a software problem with the fly-by-wire flight control system’s remote electronic unit made by Parker Aerospace, according to Embraer. The delay pushes Legacy 500 certification to the second half of 2013, about a year later than planned, and service entry in early 2014. The Legacy 450’s milestone dates all follow the Legacy 500’s by one year.

Maximum takeoff weight for the Latitude is pegged at “just over 28,000 pounds” and for the Legacy 450 is undisclosed, and neither Cessna nor Embraer is revealing its airplane’s target empty weight yet.

Like its M2 stablemate, the Latitude will incorporate Cessna’s new Clairity fiber-optic cabin management system, developed in collaboration with Heads Up Technologies and controlled by passengers through smartphone apps. “It’s a smartphone talking to a smart airplane,” notes Cindy Halsey, v-p of interior design, engineering and development. Clairity manages on-board entertainment, interactive moving maps, flight information and Internet browsing. Cessna expresses confidence its cabins will be more appealing than those of the Embraers.

It was in 2008 that Embraer announced development of the $16.47 million Legacy 450 and $19.875 million Legacy 500 (both 2012 $), which share the same wings, empennage and six-foot stand-up flat-floor cabin cross-section. The 500’s fuselage will be about six feet longer than that of the shorter-range 450. Both Embraers will have an externally serviced aft vacuum lavatory. The 500 will fly 2,800 nm with eight passengers, at Mach 0.80 and NBAA IFR reserves–500 nm more than the 450 at long-range cruise speed. Embraer cut the first metal for the Legacy 450 and Legacy 500 on April 20, 2010, at its headquarters in São Jose dos Campos, Brazil. The first component to be manufactured was part of the forward fuselage, to which the radome, radar and glideslope antenna are attached.

The Legacy 450 will be equipped with Honeywell’s high-definition, touchscreen Ovation Select cabin management system (CMS). It can interface with high-speed satellite communications and a variety of wired and wireless consumer electronics, including iPods, MP3 players, AppleTV and gaming systems. As on its smaller Phenom jets, Embraer collaborated with BMW DesignworksUSA on styling the Legacy 450 and 500 cabin.

The Legacy 450 cabin will feature a refreshment center located in the left-hand side of the entrance area, opposite the standard seventh seat or the optional two-place divan. The refreshment center features several stowage compartments, a working surface, an ice drawer, a trash compartment, an optional microwave or convection oven, soda cans compartment and coffee brewer or espresso maker. Cessna said the Latitude will have a wet galley with hot and cold beverage service, china and crystal storage, ice storage and an option for an oven (likely both microwave and convection).

The Legacy 450’s flat-floor cabin accommodates seven or eight passengers, depending on whether the customer stays with the standard seven-seats layout or opts for the two-place divan. Half-club pairs of single seats can be rotated back-to-back and then recline together to form a sleeping surface. Both the Legacy 450 and Legacy 500 share the same lavatory design and size, featuring a solid door, vanity, basin and vacuum toilet. As an option, the lavatory seat can be approved for occupancy during takeoff and landing to increase seating capacity.

M2 Takes on Phenom 100

Cessna announced the M2 in late September last year as a new twinjet derivative to serve as a step-up for Mustang owners or as a higher entry-level Citation between the Mustang and CJ2+. The M2 revives the CJ1+ airframe but with a Garmin G3000 avionics suite, 1,965-pound-thrust Fadec Williams FJ44-1AP-21 engines, subtle winglets and, compared with its predecessor, higher-quality interior furnishings and greater speed. Perhaps more important, however, the M2 lops about $800,000 off what the CJ1+ cost when Cessna quit building that airplane last year. The M2 carries a price tag of $4.195 million, $200,000 north of the Phenom 100’s $3.995 million. According to M2 business manager Brian Rohloff, the cost savings stemmed mostly from switching to a Garmin suite (in place of the CJ1+’s Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21) and in negotiating with Williams on the price of the FJ44s. For certification and pilot type ratings, the M2 retains the type designation C525. Cessna says it will fly the prototype in the first quarter of this year, followed by FAA certification in the second quarter of next year and entry into service in the fourth quarter.

The Phenom 100, powered by a pair of P&WC PW617F-Es each producing 1,695 pounds of static thrust, entered service early in 2009 and has proved popular not only with private owners but also as one of the smallest jets offered for fractional ownership and charter. As the numbers in the chart below show, the Cessna and Embraer airplanes are closely matched, and for the owner-pilots who tend to buy this sort of airplane, the deciding factor will likely be how they compare on the stick.

Kestrel Aircraft is abandoning plans to set up the headquarters and new production plant for its K-350 single-engine turboprop in Brunswick Landing, Maine. On January 16, the company announced a $118 million deal to locate in Richard I. Bong Airport in Superior, Wis., and begin construction in June. The agreement is being financed by a variety of grants, low-interest loans, and tax credits from the City of Superior, Douglas County and the state of Wisconsin.

Assembling Sources of Capital

The majority of the funding is coming from the state, and the deal is viewed as a political plus for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R), who likely faces a contentious recall election later this year. Walker said the deal could create “about 600 jobs” in economically racked Northwest Wisconsin. Kestrel is the largest private-sector job creation deal announced since he took office last year. The state is extending Kestrel $108 million in tax credits and $4 million in low-interest loans. The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority will provide $30 million in new market tax credits (NMTC) this year, $60 million in future NMTCs and a $2 million loan through the U.S. Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative Program.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. is extending $18 million in enterprise-zone tax credits and a $2 million economic development loan. Douglas County is providing a $500,000 loan and transferring land adjacent to the airport. Kestrel is also getting a $2.4 million low-interest loan and $3.1 million in tax incremental financing and land grants from the City of Superior.

A Kestrel spokeswoman declined to reveal how much private capital the company has raised to date, but said, “The business plan calls for an assortment of financing, [but capital from] a private-equity firm is not one of them.”

Last summer Kestrel CEO Alan Klapmeier told AIN, “Capital formation is broken in the United States. To do a program like this you need to find all of the different [capital] sources and put them together brick by brick. A large part is economic development assistance. It is just the state of business today.” In 2010 Klapmeier said that approximately $20 million to $30 million had already been spent developing the Kestrel but that an estimated $100 million more would be required to get the aircraft certified. Subsequently, the aircraft went through a significant redesign that included the engine intake inlet and firewall to accommodate its 1,650-shp Honeywell TPE331-14GR turboprop engine. “We are getting close to final configuration and we are in the last phase of airframe layout, specifically the fine points of airfoil shape and twist,” Klapmeier told AIN in July 2011. “At the conclusion of that we will start making airframe tools.”

Kestrel had hoped to fly a reworked prototype this year, but the company acknowledged last month that a first flight now is not likely until sometime next year. Kestrel is aiming to produce an aircraft with 325-knot maximum cruise speed, a full-fuel range of 1,300 nm with 1,250 pounds of payload and a price on par with or below that of a Daher-Socata TBM 850. The company has attracted sufficient financing to build a production aircraft, but needs more capital to fund the project through certification. Once in production, Klapmeier estimates a market for 35 to 50 Kestrels annually.

Kestrel will continue to keep its Aeroworks aircraft modification business at Brunswick and hopes to expand that business there. Aeroworks employs 25 people at Brunswick. Kestrel has 25 more employees at its engineering office in Duluth, Minn. Kestrel formed Aeroworks in July to install the Avidyne R9 avionics system and other upgrades in the Piper Meridian turboprop singles and piston-powered Cirrus SR22s via supplemental type certificates (STCs). Aeroworks has designed a more ergonomic cockpit for the Meridian and will offer a four-blade propeller and new cowling for the Cirrus.

Alan Klapmeier and his brother Dale founded Cirrus Design in 1984. That company is located in Duluth. Alan Klapmeier left Cirrus in 2009, and his brother was named Cirrus CEO last year after China Aviation International General Aviation (Caiga) acquired the company. Alan Klapmeier joined Kestrel Aircraft as CEO in 2010.

The original and only Kestrel prototype was manufactured under contract by Epic Aircraft for Farnborough Aviation and made its first flight in 2006. Both companies subsequently failed. Caiga bought the assets of Epic in 2010. They include the design for an all-composite single-engine turboprop called the Escape, which resembles, but is smaller than, the Kestrel K-350.

Cirrus is currently evaluating the turboprop market.

Business aviation will be well represented at the Singapore Airshow, despite the fact that just over a month later, most companies will be heading to Shanghai for NBAA’s relaunched Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (Abace). Airbus will give a show debut to its ACJ318 in Singapore, as will Gulfstream with its new G280. Another newcomer will be Ruag’s 228NG business/utility aircraft (a reworking of the Dornier twin turboprop).

Also on the bizav roster for Singapore are Cessna, Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer, Pilatus and Piper. The rotorcraft fraternity will be represented by AgustaWestland, Bell Helicopter and Eurocopter, even though these firms are also set to make a strong showing at the 2012 HeliExpo being staged in Dallas just the week before.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a type certificate for the Sukhoi Superjet 100-95 on February 3 , paving the way for the Russian jet’s operation by airlines in Western Europe and in countries that use EASA regulations as their reference standard. As a result, the Superjet 100 becomes the first ever Russian type categorized as a “large airplane” to achieve EASA CS-25 certification.

The EASA certificate, in effect, represents a validation of the ticket already issued by Commonwealth of Independent States’ Interstate Aviation Committee Aviation Register (IAC AR) in January 2011. So far six SSJ100s—five flying for Aeroflot and a single airplane for Armenian flag carrier Armavia—operate under the CIS authority. Plans call for Italy’s Blue Panorama—the Western European launch customer—to operate the airplane under EASA certification. It holds a firm order for eight of the regional jets and options on another four and plans to take delivery of its first airplane next year.

The European validation started after IAC AR certification application in 2004 and went through four different phases in parallel with the Russian certification process: Familiarization, Agreement of Certification Programs, Compliance Determination and Final Project Report. The European validation program also included several dedicated flight and ground tests. In particular the EASA pilots underwent “many” sessions on the so-called “electronic bird” (Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Corporation’s integrated simulator and rig for the SSJ100) and participated in 45 certification flights lasting about 70 flight hours.

The ground tests covered, among other items, the ultimate pressure load of the fuselage, the bird strike of the front upper cockpit panel, the broken-tire strike of the lower hatch cover of the wing fuel tank and the fire-resistance of the composite flap. Ten working groups analyzed, analyzed and agreed to 84 certification review items and 60 certification action items, while closing more than 500 actions and questions received from the certification authorities.

“The job we have done together is really great,” said Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk, president of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCAC). “We sincerely thank our colleagues from the EASA and IAC AR for their big support. The European certification is a key milestone in getting worldwide recognition of our aircraft, which will open up new perspectives for the Sukhoi Superjet 100 in the international markets.”

The EASA planned to hand over the type certificate to Sukhoi Civil Aircraft officially on February 24 at IAC AR headquarters in Moscow.

Hungary extended until 2026 the lease contract with the Swedish government for the 14 Saab Gripen C/D fighters that it received in 2006 and 2007. The agreement was due to expire in 2016. According to press reports in Budapest, Hungary currently pays $130 million per year to operate the aircraft, which were surplus to Swedish air force requirements. Saab said it is pleased by Hungary’s “long-term strategic decision.”

Meanwhile, Dassault has challenged the Gripen’s recent success in the Swiss fighter evaluation. Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche was first to report that the French company had sent a letter to the Swiss parliament that offers to reduce the cost of the Rafale package to about $3 billion, including 18 aircraft. In fact, AIN understands, the letter is not a firm offer, but it does explain that some reductions in the capabilities and the weapons package would reduce the cost. The Gripen package is worth $3.4 billion, including 22 aircraft to the NG configuration. The Swiss government is due to submit its choice to the parliament for approval next month. The deal may yet go to a referendum.

In Sweden this year, the government is expected to consider further funding for the NG and its evolution into the Gripen E/F version, which might replace the air force’s current C/D fleet from 2020. Saab has proposed various enhanced configurations for the E/F, including features that have already been flight-tested in the Gripen NG and Demo versions, such as AESA (active electronically scanned array) radar, new structure, and GE F414 engine.