In the world of building new airplanes, real time frames never seem to quite match projections, but the work plods forward nonetheless. When last we heard from Adam Aircraft, they were expecting to certify and deliver their new centerline-thrust twin, the A500, in the first quarter of this year, so we called for an update. “Things are progressing well here,” Adam Aircraft spokesman John Hamilton told AVweb on Tuesday. “We’re confident that we’ll have certification of the A500 and first delivery in the first half of this year.” So scratch spring, and hope for summer. In April, Adam will be at Sun ‘n Fun in Florida with an A500 to show, Hamilton said, and will also exhibit its A700 light jet. The company is working on the two projects in parallel, he said, and plans to start building A700 Ship Two, the conforming prototype, in about a month. “We’ve flown about 100 hours of flight testing on Ship One, and it’s in Florida now, at Eglin Air Force Base, for engine-icing tests. When it gets back, we’ll start pressurizing the cabin and taking it to higher altitudes,” he said. So far, the jet has not flown above 25,000 feet or so, he said. Engineers are also working on detailed designs of all the systems for implementation in the second ship. Certification of the jet’s Williams FJ33 engine is “imminent,” Hamilton said. That’s been imminent for a while now, but Hamilton said he couldn’t be more specific. “The engines will be ready well in advance of the airplane,” he said, and that’s all that really matters. The jet certification might follow by the end of this year — but stay tuned for updates.
