Story ID: 030
Legacy Tails: Jet Commander
By: David Donald
Caption: Jet Commander returned to the U.S. and has evolved into a Gulfstream
Word Count: 1845
Born in the U.S. during the early business jet rush, the Jet Commander fell victim to American corporate laws but found a ready home in Israel, where the design flourished. Its derivatives later made a triumphant return to U.S. ownership, forming the basis of the smaller aircraft in Gulfstream’s prestigious range.
In the late 1940s, aeronautical engineer Ted Smith schemed a light piston twin aimed at the private and business aviation markets. The Model 520 bore a resemblance to the Douglas A-26 Invader bomber, upon which Smith had worked during World War II, but was smaller and sleeker. Its flat-six engines were also far more efficient—and cleaner—than the Invader’s radials.
The Model 520 first flew in April 1948, and Smith formed a company—Aero Design and Engineering, later Aero Commander—in Bethany, Ohio, to build the aircraft. It was a considerable success in a sector largely dominated by wartime-surplus bombers, transports, and trainers. Smith later left the company, resurfacing with the Aerostar in the 1970s, renowned for years as the world’s fastest piston-engine private aircraft.
In the meantime, the Model 520 was developed further into versions—collectively known as “Twin Commanders”—with more power, extended wings, stretched fuselage, and pressurized cabin. The ultimate was the Model 680FL Grand Commander. However, the sleek twins were increasingly facing cheaper competition. The introduction in the mid-1960s of the hugely successful Beech King Air with its PT6A turboprop engines was a landmark moment, not only for Aero Commander but also for the sector as a whole.
Aero Commander clearly needed to respond if it wanted to stay in the market, but it was not until 1967 that the TPE331-powered Turbo Commander appeared. It made some dents in the turboprop twin market, and by 1986 when production ended, just over 950 had been built.
Jet Commander
However, and possibly contributing to the tardiness in introducing a turboprop aircraft, Aero Commander had much earlier taken the bold step to develop a jet-powered derivative of its Twin Commander. The starting point was a fuselage similar to that of the Model 680FL, albeit with smaller cabin windows to permit higher pressurization for flight at higher altitudes. Shorter and dihedral-less mid-set straight wings replaced the Twin’s high-set surfaces, and a pair of General Electric CJ610 turbojets was mounted on the rear fuselage sides. The prototype Model 1121 Jet Commander first took to the air on Jan. 27, 1963.
Initial testing led to a 2-foot 6-inch fuselage stretch and increases in payload and mtow. Certification was awarded on Nov. 4, 1964, and deliveries got underway early in 1965, with production reaching eight per month.
Costing around $500,000, the Jet Commander was popular with its pilots, who praised its good handling qualities. Passengers approved of the interior, and in particular, the excellent view afforded from all seats, a byproduct of the design in which the whole of the unobstructed cabin was forward of the wing.
On the power of its two 2,850-pound thrust CJ610-1 engines, the Model 1121 had a ceiling of 40,000 feet. After 118 production aircraft, the Model 1121A was introduced with slightly increased fuel capacity, new wheels and brakes, and a rise in ceiling to 41,000 feet. Typical high-speed cruise was 425 knots, with a maximum speed of 455 knots, and the range was around 1,600 nm. Only 11 were built.
The final Aero Commander model, the 1121B, accounted for a further 19 aircraft, fitted with 2,950-pound thrust CJ610-5s and thrust reverse offered as an option. A number of early aircraft were subsequently modified to the unofficial “1121C” standard with increased mtow.
Despite having taken an aggressive gamble at an early stage, the Jet Commander had been beaten to market by the Lockheed JetStar, North American Sabreliner, de Havilland DH.125 from the UK, and the French Morane-Saulnier Paris Jet. The game-changing Lear Jet was soon to join the fray. Without significant investment to drive continued development, Aero Commander could not afford to remain successful in the sector.
A solution came in the form of the Rockwell-Standard company, a long-standing industrial parts, machinery, and tools producer. In 1965, Ted Smith’s aircraft company became the Aero Commander Division of Rockwell. While this solved the immediate problem of securing investment, it soon created a major problem for the Model 1121 itself, one which was not of its making.
Spurred by its acquisition of Aero Commander, Rockwell became more interested in aviation, and by 1967 it was making a move on North American Aviation, one of the industry’s giants. However, a merger between the two companies raised a major problem: North American already built a bizjet, the Sabreliner, and U.S. anti-trust laws forbade North American Rockwell from marketing both it and the Jet Commander. One of the business jets had to go.
Despite the many advantages of the Jet Commander, it was the unlucky type selected for disposal. The principal argument was that North American had supplied Sabreliners to the U.S. Air Force (as the T-39) and not only wanted to keep further contract work and ongoing support/spare parts business but also did not want to upset its primary customer. The loss of the Jet Commander business would be very small fry compared with potentially losing a major military aircraft deal.
IAI Developments
As a result, while the Turbo Commander business continued under Rockwell’s stewardship, the Jet Commander was put up for sale with a degree of reluctance and regret. It was not long before a buyer was found: the government-owned Israel Aircraft Industries, which had been formed to create an aviation industry in the young nation. The entire Model 1121 program was acquired, including all tooling and parts and 49 incomplete aircraft.
Production restarted in Israel in 1969, with the aircraft renamed the 1121 Commodore Jet. IAI flew a pair of improved Model 1122 aircraft, but they were completed as the Model 1123. This six- to eight-seat variant, named Westwind, first flew on Dec. 8, 1971. It had a 20-inch fuselage stretch, 3,100-pound CJ610-9 engines, and a Microturbo Saphir III APU. The Westwind also featured tip tanks for increased range and an optional auxiliary tank in the baggage compartment. The wings had leading-edge slats and double-slotted trailing-edge flaps, and the tailplane was of greater span. After 36 had been built, the Model 1124 Westwind was introduced with 3,700-pound Garrett AiResearch TFE731 turbofans, which increased range by 10 percent and reduced field length requirements. A ventral fin was added for greater longitudinal stability.
Westwinds proved popular in the marketplace, and a few remain in service today. The original Westwind I was superseded by the 1124B Westwind II with an improved wing and small upright fins added to the tip tanks for greater high-altitude efficiency. Maximum operating Mach number was raised to M0.785 from the M0.765 of the earlier Jet Commander models.
Only a handful of Jet Commanders and Westwinds served with the military, and then mostly as staff transports. The notable exception was the IAI 1124N SeaScan, which was initially developed by IAI for a U.S. Coast Guard requirement eventually fulfilled by the Dassault Falcon 20G (HU-25). The 1124N had a bulbous nose housing the antenna of a Litton APS-504 search radar and could be fitted with stores pylons on the lower fuselage sides. The Israeli Air Force bought three, as did the Australian customs agency, albeit without the stores pylons. One jet was used by IAI for radar trials, with a MiG-21 nose grafted onto the front end.
Production of the Westwind came to an end in 1987, after around 290 had been built. They followed on from the 150 Jet Commanders.
Returning "Home"
In the late 1970s, IAI was working on a successor to the Westwind, the six- to nine-seat 1125 Astra. Although the Jet Commander/Westwind lineage was very apparent, the 1125 retained little of the earlier design—principally in the tail fin area. The most obvious difference was the new wing, which was swept and low-set. The fuselage was based on that of the Westwind but was slightly wider and two feet longer. A nose that was 20 inches longer was added to accommodate more avionics. Garrett power was retained but in 3,700-pound TFE731-3A-200G form.
First flight for the Astra occurred on March 19, 1984, and production of the initial variant reached 32. Following were 37 Astra SPs with updated avionics, refined aerodynamics, and increased mtow. In 1994, the Astra SPX took to the air, the main change being the adoption of TFE731-40R-200G engines (rebranded under the Honeywell name in 1999) and winglets.
In the late 1980s, IAI began development of an altogether more ambitious project in the form of the Model 1126, initially known as the Astra IV or Astra Galaxy, but later using just the Galaxy name. An initial partnership with Yakovlev—under which the Russian company was to design and build the forward fuselage and empennage—foundered in 1995, two years after the program had been publicly announced. IAI subsequently entered into a similar agreement with EADS Sogerma in France, but that also came to nothing.
Employing a modified Astra SPX wing as its basis, the Galaxy introduced a wider cabin with three-abreast seating for eight to 10 passengers (or up to 18 in a high-density arrangement), Pratt & Whitney Canada PW306 engines, and Collins Pro Line 4 avionics with a five-screen cockpit. It first flew on December 25, 1997, and received U.S. and Israeli certification a year later.
By 1997, however, the Galaxy program was in deep trouble as the Israeli government refused to bail out IAI unless a foreign partner was found. As a result, IAI teamed with the Hyatt Corporation in Texas to form Galaxy Aerospace. IAI would build the aircraft, while completions would be undertaken in Texas.
In 2001, Galaxy Aerospace was bought by General Dynamics, and the Astra SPX and Galaxy joined the stable of GD subsidiary Gulfstream, becoming the G100 and G200, respectively, in 2002. The same year, after a total of 77 Astra SPX/G100s had been built, Gulfstream announced an improved follow-on in the form of the G150. It had a wider and longer fuselage and a reprofiled nose. Sales were not particularly strong, and the G150 was discontinued in 2017 after 120 had been built.
Gulfstream built 250 G200s until production ended in 2011 to make way for its successor. Originally known as the G250, the designation was changed to G280 to avoid any unfortunate connotations in the Chinese market. Essentially a G200 with a 34 percent larger wing, Honeywell HTF7250G engines, and reworked interior, the G280 made its first flight on Dec. 11, 2009.
It remains in production as the smallest of Gulfstream’s high-end business jet offerings. Over the years, through numerous corporate ownership changes and design improvements, the grandchild of the original Jet Commander now shares the looks and opulence of its larger stablemates and is clearly very much a “Gulfstream” product. Deep down, however, the genes of one of the business jet market’s now-forgotten pioneers live on.