Microjets new business class?
Aimed at smaller firms, ‘ taxi’ services Pratt & Whitney has sky-high hopes
Sizing up the Pratt & Whitney 600 series turbofan engine, designed and tested by hundreds of engineers in Mississauga and Montreal, it’s at first difficult to fathom how it could revolutionize business travel.
“ It’s almost as if you can pick up the engine under your arm and walk away with it,” says Dan Breitman, vice- president of the P& W Canada facility near Highway 401, birthplace of the 600 series. Only 50 centimetres wide and 127 centimetres long, it’s a small engine for a small plane with big ambition — and also some skeptics. Dubbed microjets, or very light jets ( VLJ), the twin- engine, sixseaters will start at just over $ 1 million ( U. S.) but offer commercial jet speed at commercial jet altitudes. That means Toronto to Montreal in less than an hour in a plane that could weigh as little as 2,540 kilograms. The price tag would make private jet travel no longer the exclusive luxury of executives at the wealthiest companies. That rarefied air would open up to firms with more modest revenues — and perhaps even to middle management.
Microjet builders — one aviation analyst says more than 10 could try to enter the market in the next few years — also believe the planes will appeal to small aircraft owners and operators looking for a high- powered upgrade. The microjets could also populate fleets of what proponents are calling air taxi services, which will use smaller airports such as Buttonville, and offer travellers the option of bypassing the lengthy wait times and hassles of big- city airports. Simply call up the taxi service a day or two in advance and order a time, destination and plane.
“ It’s a market that was born because of the aggravation of commercial travel at big airports,” Breitman says. “ If you’re flying Toronto to Detroit and they tell you to show up 21⁄ hours before your flight, ( you) might as well
drive there.” But first, the planes — being designed and built for Cessna, Embraer SA and Eclipse Aviation — need certification from an aviation authority like the U. S. Federal Aviation Administration. And Transport Canada must certify the Pratt engine.
Eclipse, based in New Mexico, hopes that by March its $ 1.3 million six- seater is approved by the FAA and the Pratt engine that powers it is certified by Transport Canada.
Eclipse is eager to fill its 2,300 orders already on the books and continue to tap into what CEO Vern Raburn figures to be a sizeable demand.
“ A good friend of mine used to say you can invent a better mousetrap, but you’re going to have to find people who want to murder mice,” says Raburn, a former Microsoft executive. “ We think there’s a lot of mice murderers out there.” About 10,500 companies operated nearly 16,000 aircraft in the U. S. in 2003, according to the Washington-based not- forprofit National Business Aviation Association. But with a more affordable option, more than 10 times the number of companies could be in the market for a plane with operating costs of $300 to $350 per hour. Eclipse notes there are 125,000 U. S. companies with revenue of $10 million per year.
Analysts don’t doubt the appeal.
“People with money do buy toys like this,” says Richard Stoneman of Dundee Securities in Toronto.
Another, Cameron Doerksen of Versant Partners in Montreal, says, “You can get performance at a pretty low cost. There are a lot of people out there flying turboprops and for not a whole lot more money, they can go out there and buy a jet.”
Pratt & Whitney hopes they’re right. Pratt spends $200 million ( Canadian) on research and development annually in Mississauga and at any given time has 300 engineers working on the 600 series. Production is to start next year in Montreal.
“ It’s the smallest turbofan engine we have ever done and that in itself creates problems because things don’t always scale nicely,” Breitman says. And because the microjets will be considerably cheaper than some of the larger business jets, such as the Bombardier Global Express, the engine cost must reflect that scale.
“ It’s got to be a very, very affordable engine,” Breitman says. “ It means we had to reduce the parts count. We had to think about it differently.”
That included making a onepiece engine fan. By comparison, the fan on Pratt’s larger 300 series engine used on Gulfstream and Lear jets comprises more than 20 parts. But for some industry watchers, there are uncertainties that might slow the acceptance of the microjet. How will an influx of these planes affect small airports? What about noise pollution in neighbourhoods surrounding smaller airports? Will our skies be safe as recreational weekend pilots accustomed to older planes and more pedestrian speeds start flying 700- kilometrean-hour jets?
“ If you take a guy who owns two car dealerships, if he plants one off these things into a town somewhere in Kansas in the first three months of the microjets arriving, the industry would be dead on arrival,” Stoneman says. “ Can you imagine the legislative furor? The industry can’t afford to have a screw- up early.” But Raburn is weary of this “standard whine” about safety and wants to debunk the “ mysticism of jet pilots. This is the dirty little secret in aviation: Jets are the easiest airplanes to fly. They’re more reliable. They’re actually simpler to operate.”
Part of the purchase price includes a trip to Eclipse’s Denver training facility where a United Airlines crew trains customers. As for noise concerns, Breitman says the 600 engines are quiet, even quieter than some of the turboprops they seek to replace. But Stoneman wonders how seamlessly microjets will fit into our skies and on our tarmacs.
“ We’re not going to wake up tomorrow and see 3,000 of these things buzzing around without various airports having an interest in it. One of these things landing at Pearson Airport takes up as much ( runway) space as a 747.” NAV Canada spokesperson Louis Garneau says that while the microjets will be in the same weight class as many propeller aircraft, the aviation author will look at whether it will need devise a new fee structure for m crojet operators in part to pay f additional radar control servic Stoneman also asks: Just ho convenient is a microjet for t executive on the move?
“ You can get on a Global Expre and it will fly you to Hong Kon while the Eclipse has a range 2,400 kilometres. The high net- worth CEOs w stick with their bigger, fanc planes, Doerksen predicts.
“ The microjets are probably g ing to be a little bit too small as f as doing work. You can’t ho meetings on it.” While the microjet builde worry about how to stake th claim, Pratt stands in a fairly go position as supplier to three se ous contenders, Stoneman sa But, he cautions, cheaper engin mean Pratt will need high sa volume. “ It’s going to take an a ful lot of these to move the dial revenue and earnings.” London, Ont.- based Ou PLANE has ordered 20 Eclip microjets for its “ fractiona ownership business that se shares of planes to companies individual operators. The comp ny manages and maintains ea plane for its owners and could the first to introduce an Eclip to Toronto’s airspace. Though Breitman knows t market will ultimately deci whether Pratt was right to sink much into the future of micr jets, he’s confident the plane more than a flight of fancy. It i product that fills a gaping hole customer service, Breitman sa and might spur a sophisticat network of small airports to a commodate the microjet’s righ ful place in aviation.
“ When they invented the aut mobile, there were no service st tions. Now there’s self- serve every corner beside Tim Ho tons,” he says.
“History tells you, you put there first, the infrastructure w follow.”