Almost 27 years after bizjet legend Allen Paulson announced–and then abandoned–the single-engine jet known as the Gulfstream Peregrine, the single-engine very light jet (VLJ) concept is inching closer to fruition. Proponents point to the successful single-engine turboprop programs of the last two decades–Cessna’s Caravan, TBM’s 850, Pilatus’s PC-12 and Piper’s Meridian among them–and the tested durability of the Williams FJ-series fan jets slated to power the new single VLJs as reasons why the time is ripe for these smaller, more fuel-efficient jets.
Three established airframe makers–Cirrus, Diamond and Piper–are all flying single VLJ prototypes with Williams engines. The PiperJet uses a single FJ44-3AP, while Cirrus and Diamond are using the smaller FJ33-5A, an 80-percent scale derivative of the FJ44, an engine that powers the twinjet Citation CJs, Hawker Beechcraft Premier Is and the Emivest SJ30-2.

Others have been in the game as well:
• The single-engine Eclipse Concept Jet could not save Eclipse from the throes of bankruptcy;
• Epic shut its doors in July under the strain of trying to develop multiple aircraft, including its Victory single-engine VLJ;
• Stratos has a mockup but nothing flying yet; and
• Excel crashed its prototype Sport-Jet in 2006 and has not flown anything since.
As a class, these aircraft will burn 50 to 66 gph and cruise at 300 to 360 knots at altitudes between FL250 and 350. Diamond plans to make initial customer deliveries of its $1.89 million D-Jet next year, although it has only two aircraft in its test program so far. Cirrus and Diamond derive most of their revenues from the hard-hit piston airplane market, where new aircraft sales have fallen sharply. The delivery numbers are just plain ugly, and sales of new piston airplanes for the second quarter of 2009 dropped 58 percent from the same period a year ago.