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[Kip Powick]

Pratt-powered microjet unveiled

Retired 18-wheeler dealer will be the first Canadian owner of plane that could revolutionize air travel

May 12, 2006. 01:00 AM

DAVID BRUSER

BUSINESS REPORTER

When his $1 million flying taxi comes off the assembly line, retired truck dealer Archie Fraser will become the first Canadian owner of a microjet outfitted with Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines.

"I just like my toys," he said.

But Fraser, 67, a resident of Edmonton and private pilot, doesn't have the proper certification to fly this kind of jet alone.

So he'll simply call Andy, his Edmonton-based pilot-for-hire, to ferry him and his wife Arne around on his new twin-engine five-seater, made by New Mexico-based Eclipse Aviation and ready for pick-up in October.

"I just fly mostly for a hobby. I took it up when I was about 40 years old," said the former 18-wheeler dealer. "(Arne) loves to come with me. She was happy when I got rid of the motorcycles and the snowmobiles for my pilot's licence. Lesser of three evils."

Meanwhile, Eclipse showed off the first Pratt-powered microjet on Canadian soil yesterday, for an audience of 100 Pratt employees gathered at Pearson International Airport. Different versions of the 600 series engine, designed and tested by hundreds of engineers in Mississauga and Montreal, will also appear on microjets made by Embraer SA and Cessna.

Proponents believe the plane could revolutionize air travel, providing a new level of convenience and affordability for corporate and recreational flyers, while potentially populating small airports like Buttonville.

Pratt hopes they're right. The firm spends $180 million on research and development annually in Mississauga and had as many as 1,000 employees companywide working on the engine, which measures only 50 centimetres wide and 127 centimetres long. Production is expected to start in Montreal within the next two months.

Some industry watchers have raised safety concerns about recreational pilots accustomed to older planes and more pedestrian speeds taking to the skies in microjets, or very light jets (VLJs). And they wonder if high net-worth CEOS will stick with their fancier corporate jets.

But Fraser said, "I think it's just going to mushroom like nothing has in the air industry before. It's going to revolutionize the whole air industry for corporations, when their key people have to go into smaller cities, smaller runways. Leave in the morning, home in the afternoon."

Fraser ordered his microjet in 2000, long before Eclipse was ready to produce the five-to-six-seaters. He owns two Cessnas, a single-engine he flies himself, and a twin-engine that, like the microjet, he needs Andy to pilot. The differences between his current fleet and the Eclipse he'll pick up in Albuquerque in October are major: altitude (it tops out at 41,000 feet) and speed (up to 375 knots).

"You'd be flying up with the jetliners. It's exciting, and it's smooth air up there. You're out of the weather."

He says his new microjet will also travel nearly twice as fast. "I'll be able to go right from here to the Scottsdale, Ariz., airport in about three hours and 20 minutes."

Fraser keeps a home and real estate investments in Phoenix. He's also got family spread across Canada, including a daughter in Vancouver and another in Halifax.

Eclipse, now in its test-flight stage, expects to gain approvals from U.S. aviation authorities by the end of June.

As for his ability to cover the cost of fuel and maintenance for yet another plane, Fraser only said, "I'm doing okay."

In fact, Fraser is buying two Eclipse microjets. When some buyers were given the option to back out in 2003 as Eclipse switched engine manufacturers and went with Pratt, Fraser said he took the opportunity to buy another one at the 2000 price of $950,000 (U.S.). The plane now sells for nearly $1.3 million.

"I'll sell one and keep the other and reduce the cost of the original. I've done a lot of buying and selling over the years