The Stratos 714 is an American

very light jet A very light jet (VLJ), entry-level jet or personal jet, previously known as a microjet, is a category of small business jets seating four to eight people. VLJs are considered the lightest business jets and are approved for single-pilot operati ...

aircraft under development by Stratos Aircraft of

Redmond, Oregon Redmond is a city in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. Incorporated on July 6, 1910, the city is on the eastern side of Oregon's Cascade Range, in the High Desert in Central Oregon. From Redmond there is access to recreational opportunit ...

. The project was announced in July 2008, a prototype first flew on 21 November 2016, although Stratos currently lacks the funding to complete

type certification A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). It confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production, is in compliance with applic ...

. Predominantly made of carbon composite, the single turbofan aircraft would seat four to six at over up to .

Development

Chief technology officer Carsten Sundin launched the

VLJ A very light jet (VLJ), entry-level jet or personal jet, previously known as a microjet, is a category of small business jets seating four to eight people. VLJs are considered the lightest business jets and are approved for single-pilot operati ...

project with

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

Michael Lemaire, aiming for higher speed and range than competitors. Sundin joined Lancair in 1993 after graduating and became engineering manager on the Lancair Legacy 2000. In 2003 he joined Epic Aircraft to become engineering manager on its new single turboprop and met the aerodynamicist of the Farnborough F1, Gordon Robinson. Farnborough Aircraft and Epic formed a joint venture to develop the smaller kit

Epic LT The Epic LT is an American kit-built single-engined turboprop aircraft intended for use by private pilots. The Epic Dynasty was the proposed certified version of the LT that was intended be sold as a completed aircraft, prior to Epic Aircraft ...

along the FAR-23 certificated F1, sharing their wing, engine and tail, and Sundin Left Epic in 2005. The project was unveiled on 16 July 2008, touted as an ''owner-flown Very Light Personal Jet''. A cabin mock-up was shown at

AirVenture EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (formerly the EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In), or just Oshkosh, is an annual air show and gathering of aviation enthusiasts held each summer at Wittman Regional Airport and adjacent Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wiscons ...

in July 2009. At that time the company predicted the jet would sell for about US$2M. The company was seeking US$12M to build two prototypes and a further US$100M to complete certification and commence production. The company CEO, Michael Lemaire, indicated in 2009 that the aircraft will fill a performance niche, as there is no other four seat aircraft with the 714's speed and range. The company was accepting refundable customer deposits of US$50,000 to be held in interest-bearing

escrow An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacti ...

in 2009. The first deposit was made by

Cascade Air Charter Cascade, Cascades or Cascading may refer to: Science and technology Science *Cascade waterfalls, or series of waterfalls * Cascade, the CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense (a protein complex) * Cascade (grape), a type of fruit * Bioch ...

, of

Bend, Oregon Bend is a city in and the county seat of Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bend is Central Oregon's largest city, with a population of 99,178 at the time of the 2020 U ...

in October 2009. First flight of a

proof of concept Proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is a realization of a certain method or idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle with the aim of verifying that some concept or theory has prac ...

aircraft was achieved on 21 November 2016 before a public introduction at

in July 2017, with no firm schedule for certification. It is

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

as N403KT. In February 2017 prototype flight testing continued. The company did not have the funding to complete

certification Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...

, and was no longer accepting deposits from customers. Stratos CEO Michael Lemaire indicated at that time, "we are privately funded for the prototype phase, during which we are planning to explore the full flight envelope and draw conclusions for the certification stage. We are not yet funded for the certification phase. At present, we have no plan to take deposits towards deliveries, which are still many years away." While investment is sufficient for an additional prototype and to finish flight testing, certification would need in the range of at least $200 million. Stratos estimates type certification would need $100–150 million, but this could triple, and considers as an intermediate step selling

aircraft kit Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...

s needing a $200–400 thousand JT15D-5 with a few hundred hours before TBO. Production aircraft with a $900,000 PW535E are targeted for $3–3.5 million, 50% more than a

Cirrus SF50 The Cirrus Vision SF50, also known as the Vision Jet, is a single-engine very light jet designed and produced by Cirrus Aircraft of Duluth, Minnesota, United States. After receiving deposits starting in 2006, Cirrus unveiled an aircraft mock- ...

but competitive with $4.5-5 million twin

s with its , range, full fuel payload and consuming only cruising at FL410, while used aircraft at this price have lower efficiency, dispatch reliability and inferior technology. By July 2018, the 714 prototype had flown 185 flight hours, reaching 25,000 feet and 370 knots. The proof-of-concept aircraft had logged 250 hours by April 2019, and 330 hours by January 2020.

Stratos 716X

In May 2018, after 170 hours of test flying, Stratos decided to stretch the fuselage by 31 in (77.5 cm) to better accommodate six adults with bags. The aircraft was to be named and unveiled in the third quarter of 2018, with a first flight likely in 2019. Powered by a PWC JT15D-5 with single-lever control, The 716X was unveiled at the July 2018 EAA AirVenture, to be available as a kit in the fourth quarter with a stretched and wider fuselage than the 714. Before production of a

certified Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...

version in four to five years, Stratos intends to sell three kits per year. The kits will each take 2,500 hours to build, in the same manner as an

single turboprop. By April 2019, Stratos was building the fuselage for the first prototype. A full-scale cabin mock-up will be displayed at

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (formerly the EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In), or just Oshkosh, is an annual air show and gathering of aviation enthusiasts held each summer at Wittman Regional Airport and adjacent Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wiscons ...

in July. A PW535 will propel the certificated version, featuring Garmin G3000 or G5000 avionics. By January 2020, load testing had been completed, while the first prototype was being assembled. The company intends to conduct high-speed taxi tests in the second quarter, with first flight forecast for the second half of 2020. The company intends to start taking orders once flight testing is under way. Stratos forecasts a production rate of 30 to 50 aircraft per year. On July 2, 2020, the 716X made a 22 minute

maiden flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. The maiden flight of a new aircraft type is alwa ...

from

, climbing to 13,500 ft and launching a flight-test program that will last several months.

Design

The aircraft design features a cantilever

low-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

with

winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft's ...

, a

cruciform tail __NOTOC__ The cruciform tail is an aircraft empennage configuration which, when viewed from the aircraft's front or rear, looks much like a cross. The usual arrangement is to have the horizontal stabilizer intersect the vertical tail somewhere ...

and retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle ...

. The original four seater has an long, cabin, but following aircraft will be larger, with six seats. The airframe is built from

Toray is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered on technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry. Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, ...

pre-preg carbon composites and

nomex Nomex is a flame-resistant meta-aramid material developed in the early 1960s by DuPont and first marketed in 1967. Properties Nomex and related aramid polymers are related to nylon, but have aromatic backbones, and hence are more rigid and m ...

honeycomb sandwich, except the aft-center section, a fairing-covered moly steel cage supporting the turbofan for damage tolerance, in case of an uncontained engine failure. The wing has a

thickness ratio An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine. A ...

of 14-16.5%, to allow for the main

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Marti ...

and of fuel per side ( total), double-slotted flaps and the

supercritical airfoil A supercritical airfoil (supercritical aerofoil in British English) is an airfoil designed primarily to delay the onset of wave drag in the transonic speed range. Supercritical airfoils are characterized by their flattened upper surface, highly ...

maintains laminar flow on 50-55% of the upper surface. The engine is in-line with the center of mass to avoid thrust- pitch coupling. It employs a fuselage-top mount, its intakes outside the

boundary layer In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface formed by the fluid flowing along the surface. The fluid's interaction with the wall induces a no-slip boundary cond ...

. The aircraft is flown by sidesticks like Lancair aircraft or the Cessna TTx. The first prototype has an experimental Electronic International/

Garmin Garmin Ltd. (shortened to Garmin, stylized as GARMIN, and formerly known as ProNav) is an American, Swiss-domiciled multinational technology company founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao in Lenexa, Kansas, United States, with headquarte ...

flight deck, but production aircraft will have a Garmin G3000 cockpit. The pressurization provides a cabin altitude at its FL410 ceiling. The leading edge deicing boots allow flying in

icing conditions In aviation, icing conditions are atmospheric conditions that can lead to the formation of water ice on an aircraft. Ice accretion and accumulation can affect the external surfaces of an aircraft – in which case it is referred to as ''airfram ...

. The prototype is powered by a single JT15D-5 taken from a Beechjet, but production versions will use a PW535E for 22-27% more high altitude thrust and 15% better TSFC.

Specifications

References

External links