Foxjet About To Take Off

Not being a man daunted by the “impossible”, Fox set about gathering a team that would include the leading avia­tion designers and project coordinators that America could offer. Heading the Foxjet team is Nick Anderson who was also chief project engineer on the initial Learjets, no mean feat as these aircraft pioneered many features now considered stan­ dard in the booming corporate jet marketplace. Anderson then teamed with Cessna to produce the successful Citation I and II and finally was responsible for much of the work on the Gulfstream GIi project.

Spanning 31 feet 7 inches, the Foxjet is 31 feet 10 inches in length, is 10 feet 3 inches high and has a total wing area of 125 square feet. While the overall dimensions make a Falcon 20 look like a 727, the Foxjet still has a spacious interior which is a little larger than most six place piston aircraft while the large oval windows (shades of the Viscount) provide a feeling of freedom not found in many aircraft. Foxjet Australasia has invested in a $60,000 mock-up of the aircraft which will suffice to demonstrate the Foxjet’s creature comforts and design in­ novations until the first aircraft is ready for delivery around late 1980.

Australia has 12 of the first 110 Foxjets set aside for delivery through 1981. Indeed at the time of writing, there were still three aircraft available at $695,000, while the following three sales would be at $795,000 per aircraft then a floating price would prevail though this would remain below the magic one million dollar mark for some time. The planned initial production rate will be eight aircraft per month rising to 12 a month as soon as production facilities permit. There seems no lack of customers and in the US where marketing has been in full swing for almost two years there are already more than 120 firm orders for the little jet. Incidentally, some of these first orders were written at around the half-million dollar mark, which will mean one helluva capital gain for those smart corporations who got in early.

The Foxjet ST600 is powered by two William Research WR44-800 turbofans. This is one of the world’s smallest, and quietest, turbofans and measures only 16 inches in diameter and 36 inches in length for a dry weight of a mere 190Ib. Fully developed and proven with years of operational experience the WR44 is a full brother to the engines slated for the forthcoming cruise missiles. Williams Research is the world’s largest producer of small jet engines of less than 1000Ib of thrust and have delivered over 3500 of these engines to NATO and the US services. The engines are the heart of this story and contribute to the fuel economy and lack of noise that make the Foxjet unique. Each turbofan produces 850Ib of thrust and at long-range cruise settings uses only 42 imp gallons per hour between them.

Herein lies the virtues of Foxjet ownership. The aircraft itself costs around $800,000, less than half the cost of most ex­ecutive jets and a third the cost of some. The Foxjet will cruise at full payload at 330kts for 1000nm burning 42gph – name any other aircraft that can get near those figures. The engines are currently rated for Time Between Overhaul (TBO) at 1500 hrs and this is expected to be extended out to 3000 hrs by 1981. The cost for instance of a regular 100 hourly will be com­ parable to a Cessna 421.

Performance-wise the Foxjet is comparable to the Cita­tion 11 in many respects despite the fact that you can have two Foxjets for the price of one Citation II or Learjet 24F or 25. Rate of climb is listed at 3400ft per minute which is second only to the legendary Lear. Large double-slotted Fowler flaps and speed brakes allow the Foxjet to decelerate rapidly on approach to a short strip while the 74kt gross stalling speed provides access to strips not ordinarily available to executive jets. The undercarriage is designed for operations out of grass and non-paved strips and at gross weight the Foxjet has a ground roll of 7600ft and requires only 2700ft to clear a 50ft obstacle.

The Foxjet has a high-speed cruise of 360kts at 40,000ft, however, by throttling back to range cruise settings fuel consumption is reduced by as much as 40 per cent for a cruise speed of around 320/330kts. On a typical flight between Adelaide and Brisbane, the aircraft can take its six passengers plus 10016 baggage at 324kts for a block time of 2hrs 40mins and having burnt 113gls of Jet A1. At reduced payloads, the aircraft is fully capable of flying from Brisbane to Port Moresby non-stop.

So much for computer projections, the real test will come with the US certification of the little jet in the coming months. However, from where we stand, it looks like there will be a lot of Foxjet owners from Perth to Peru eagerly awaiting the delivery of their aircraft. And the best thing will be that a lot of these people will be first-time corporate buyers – which has got to be a very good thing for aviation in general.