In The Works: Safire Aircraft Safire Jet

Safire Aircraft of Opa-Locka, Fla., announced last month that wind-tunnel testing at the University of Washington Aeronautical Laboratory’s subsonic Kirstin Wind Tunnel had validated the design of the very light twinjet. Said Safire president and CEO Camilo Salomon, “When we moved from the S-26 to the Safire Jet and selected the Williams FJ33-4 turbofan, we resized the aircraft, went from composite to aluminum, changed the wingspan 3 percent, increased the weight and put all of the fuel in the wing. We also steepened the slope of the windshield, which added six inches to the cabin. The wind-tunnel tests confirm that all these changes support our design objectives.” The $1.395 million Safire Jet is scheduled to fly in the middle of this year and obtain certification in mid-2006.