Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1505694
AUGUST 2023 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 51 the Stratos 714 and the 716—and they're prov- ing to meet all the performance goals that we set out to make. What led you to want to start an aircraft company? It's not something people wake up one day and just say, "You know what? Today, I'm going to go build an airplane." Sundin: Well, aircra is all I've ever done. Straight out of college, I worked for Lancair. For 10 years, I was part of several exciting air- cra programs there including the Lancair 360, the ES, the Lancair IV, and the Lancair Legacy. I had very good exposure the first 10 years of my career, then I went on to manage the engi- neering of the Epic LT program, a six-seat tur- boprop aircra company. I consulted for a few years aer that. en I wanted to get involved with aircra design and manufacturing again. So, I pitched a few different ideas to potential investors and this one literally took off. Nice. So, where are you in the cycle to go to market? Sundin: Aircra design and manufacturing is a very long road; it took us almost nine years Carsten, let's start with a little bit about your company. Carsten Sundin: We started back in 2007 with a goal to design and produce an air- cra with significantly bet- ter performance than any- thing else out there in the high-performance, per- sonal aircra category. We set out to see what it would take to design an air- cra that would comfort- ably seat four people and travel as far as 1,500 nau- tical miles with reserves, cruise at 400 knots and, therefore, be a significant step up from anything else available at the time. When we started our ini- tial design studies, we didn't really have any set ideas about what that aircra would look like. We considered all the various configurations and powerplant options. e further we got into it, the more we realized a single-engine jet would keep it less expensive. Single-engine tur- bine aircra today are incredibly reliable; you simply don't need a second engine for safety reasons. ese engines, as long as they get fuel, just don't quit. A single engine makes it a lot easier for the owner-operator. is aircra is very simple to fly compared to even the basic piston-powered aircra. Long story short, our design studies led us to the Stratos 716X. It's an aircra that's powered by a single Pratt and Whitney JT15D-5 engine. It has about 3,000 pounds of thrust and it pro- pels the aircra at about 380 knots. e pro- duction engine will take us to the goal of 400 knots. At 41,000 feet, this aircra has a very comfortable cabin altitude of 7,600 feet, which is comparable to the Boeing 787. e trend is for lower cabin altitudes, so you arrive a lot more refreshed and not so fatigued from a long flight. So far, we've flown two aircra now— Carsten Sundin, president and CEO (left), and Chief Test Pilot Peter Stiles.