B/CA Show News - NBAA 2007 Day 2 - (Page 32)

N B A A 2 0 07 Adam Unveils Its A700 Jet Interior With Adam no longer the first man at the aircraft company which bears his name, it is new president Duncan Koerbel who has the task of promoting the firm at Atlanta this week. Rick Adam, the company’s driving force during the arduous days of start-up and early development, is now listed on the imaginary front-door brass plate merely as “Founder.” Koerbel currently has to build up production of the certified A500 twin-prop and complete development of the closely related A700 twin jet. Central to this initiative is the new 55,000-sq ft Utah High Rate Production facility at 370 kts and 833 nmi; but with five passengers, 340 kts and 1,100 nmi for $2.3 million, it compares closely with the four-pax Phenom 100, which costs $3.0 million. As the convention began, Adam and SAFERjett signed an order for one A700. Perhaps not such a big deal for a manufacturer with a total order book of 400 (which it declines to break down by type), except that Fort Worth-based SAFERjett will provide all pilot and maintenance training for both the A500 and A700 from next year on. Facets of the support package include training facility and infrastructure elements by Hillwood Adam’s A700 costs more, but is far roomier than the Eclipse 500. A Good Idea On Paper. Fortunately, nobody was inside when Adam Aircraft unveiled the A700 twinjet’s new lavatory on Booth 4933 yesterday morning. Many people—some of them possibly crackpots-—have sat on the throne of judgment on the strained question of whether the “belted toilet” is necessary in a VLJ. Some manufacturers believe it is beneath the dignity of passengers to be entered, unwillingly or unwittingly, into a “longest distance traveled on the John” competition but, flushed with pride, Adam’s President, Duncan B. Koerbel, motions with relief towards the installation and says, “You don’t need it 99% of the time, but when you gotta’ go, you gotta’ go. ” The essential mechanism is concealed, tastefully, beneath a side-hinged cushion on the unusually wide and commodious rear, fifth cabin seat. A novel, floor-mounted modesty screen—essentially an upside-down roller blind—is raised and secured to the ceiling while events take their course. So well designed is the whole apparatus that you wouldn’t know it was —PJ there.……er, which could bring the problem full circle. A700 designers have made the most of the new jet’s interior space. Ogden, from where all Adam aircraft will eventually emerge at a rate of between 150 and 240 per year under an initiative titled “Make Production Fly!”. Meanwhile, certification efforts with the A700 are being ramped up. Numbers 3 and 4, the first conforming machines, flew on April 9 and August 24, and are building on over 800 hours flown by their predecessors. Numbers 5 and 6 join the program early next year to complete the test fleet. Adam claims to have the advantage over other VLJ category entrants in a comparison of size, cost, speed and range. It is undercut by the $1.7 million Eclipse 500, which offers four passengers, 32 development, Advanced Aviation Training Device and Virtual Flight Deck by Aerosim Technologies, level D simulator from Mechtronix Systems and computer-based training by Pelesys. Customer support is also being put into place, with 11 domestic authorized service centers already established for the A500. The parallel A700 network has yet to be formulated, with several options for a strategic model currently under consideration. However, that is academic until all the FAA’s boxes are ticked, and the company is unwilling to speculate in which quarter of 2008 its efforts with the A700 will be crowned by certification. —Paul Jackson Adam is making much of the fact that its VLJ has a lavatory. September 26, 2007 www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of B/CA Show News - NBAA 2007 Day 2

Contents Spectrum Stresses Freedom Adam Shows A700 Cabin User Fee War of Words Execujet Boosts Services Saab's Got Your Back CAE Covers the Field London Airports Roundup Pratt & Whitney Canada Another Show! A More Digital Jeppesen CMC Rides Bizjet Wave Thales Weighs In We Fly the Eclipse 500

B/CA Show News - NBAA 2007 Day 2

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