Epic Aircraft's
Single-Engine Victory Jet Makes First Flight
To Premiere Alongside
Elite VLJ At AirVenture 2007
At the 2006 Lakeland Fly-In in April,
Epic Aircraft announced one of many lofty
goals: to fly two newly-designed,
just-announced aircraft -- the Victory
single engine jet, and Elite twin-engine VLJ
-- to Oshkosh later in the year.
As they say... it ain't bragging if you
can do it, and Epic looks well on its way to
making good on those promises. As
ANN reported, Epic flew the
Elite in June... and earlier this month, the
company's Victory made its first flight from
Redmond, a mere 202 days after work began on
the plane.
"In our research, we did not find ANY
other company out there that can demonstrate
this kind of focus and commitment to bring
an aircraft from the proverbial drawing
boards to reality in this length of time,"
said Epic CEO Rick Schrameck. "I’ve always
said that Epic has the best engineers and
manufacturing talent in the world, and I
think this clearly proves it!"
Schrameck also expressed thanks to local
FAA officials. "Quick response from the
Seattle MIDO and Portland FSDO allowed us to
get this jet flying on our schedule," added
Schrameck. "And we are grateful for their
efforts."
The all-composite Victory Jet uses a
single Williams International FJ-33-4A. Epic
touts a distinct advantage: that even with
full fuel, the Victory still offers more
than 900 lbs of payload -- enough for 4-5
passengers and their luggage, while flying
at more than 320 KTAS.
With one goal nearly fulfilled, Epic now
must make good on its promise to deliver at
least six of the new experimental jets to
customers before the end of 2007. Schrameck
says Epic will make good on that promise,
and at the promised price.
"This VLJ has been brought to market with
a price tag of less than a million dollars,"
added Schrameck. "And this is not a
promotional price or a price in 2002 dollars
like we’ve seen with other jets. This is the
Victory price today."
In line with other Epic aircraft, the new
Victory VLJ will first be available as an
ownerbuilt aircraft via the company’s
Customer Build Center in Bend. The
single-engine Victory and the twin-engine
Elite jets are scheduled to fly into Oshkosh
the morning of July 23.
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