Epic Air, which has made a habit of introducing new, high-performance aircraft at Sun ‘n Fun, plans to unveil two new airplanes on the event’s opening day this year.
“We’ll just say that, together, they will have two engines, one spinner and 16 windows,” Epic CEO Rick Schrameck teased while failing to say much more. He did say that the new planes are “all new” and will “continue in the Epic tradition of being at the cutting edge, comfortable and fast, while utilizing state-of-the-art technologies.”
Schrameck displayed cardboard concept images of a clean-sheet design for a six-seat, pressurized turboprop at Oshkosh in 2003. It was called the Epic LT. A year later, he flew the sleek prototype to Oshkosh.
Schrameck surprised the aviation community at the end of last year when he announced that the LT, licensed as an Experimental homebuilt, is to be certified as the Epic Dynasty in a new program the company launched in Canada. Certification is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2008 with first deliveries late in 2009 or early 2010.
The Elite Jet, a twin-engine VLJ from Epic, will go into a certification program in parallel with the Dynasty and should reach buyers at about the same time, Schrameck said recently.
“Quick implementation of aircraft designs is Epic’s history,” Schrameck said. As evidence, he pointed out that the two designs being unveiled at Sun ‘n Fun started down the design road in December 2006 and at least one will fly to Oshkosh this year, seven months later.
Meanwhile, Comp Air Aviation has confirmed that it will fly its new Comp Air 12 single-engine turboprop to Sun ‘n Fun.
The advanced turboprop “is about to rewrite the book on owner-flown air travel,” said Comp Air President Ron Lueck. Plans for the CA12 include certification, he said.
While few details have been released about the CA12 so far, it is known that it is powered by a Honeywell TPE-331-14GR engine. Honeywell representatives will be at Sun ‘n Fun to answer questions about the powerplant, Comp Air officials said.
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