Madsen Pirie

It is very small, with a wingspan of 18 feet and a maximum weight of 900 pounds, but it has a jet engine giving 257 pounds of thrust, and it can be your own personal jet plane for $125,000.  Sonex unveiled it at the Oshkosh Airventure show. Federal regulations require that at least 51 percent of a home-built plane have to be built by the owner, so the SubSonex JSX-2 is offered as an “ultra-quick build kit” with much of it already put together, but leaving he buyer to “install the engine, fuel system, retractable landing gear, avionics and interior.” But when you’ve done that, you have your own jet plane that can fly at over 200 mph and cruise at 180 mph. It has a range of over 300 miles, burning 18 gallons of jet fuel per hour.  The plane comes under the FAA’s ‘exhibition’ category, limiting when and where it can fly, but it’s described as very simple to fly, with most pilots finding an easy transition to jet-powered flight.

I rather like the idea of a personal jet plane.  I’ve provisionally set aside time, beginning soon, to set about acquiring a pilot’s licence. I doubt I’ll be a customer for this plane, though, in that it’s a single seater. All the same, it looks pretty cool and I’d quite like to fly one…

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