On Wednesday Adam Aircraft received FAA type certification on its A500 push/pull piston twin. The certification was the culmination of about seven years and 1.5 million man-hours, said CEO Rick Adam. The company rolled out its first production model in October and five more are under construction. There are a total of 65 orders for the big twin, which is all-composite and powered by Continental TSIO-550 engines. The company hopes to increase production to six planes a month at facilities in Englewood, Colo., Pueblo, Colo., and Ogden, Utah, and get production certification for the aircraft it once hoped to deliver at the start of this year. Now, about that jet. Adam raised a lot of eyebrows when it flew the prototype of its A700 very light jet to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh in 2003, two years before Eclipse (plans to) debut its 500 and Cessna (may) show off its Mustang at this year’s show. Adam has said all along that certification of the piston plane had to be the top priority before attention could be concentrated on the jet project, which has an active certification program but has taken a back seat to the A500 development. It’s worth noting that about 85 percent of the A500’s components are common to the jet, so it could be a very interesting year, indeed, in the VLJ market. Stay tuned…
