Stratos Aircraft has never quite seemed to fit in the VLJ market. They arrived late, amidst turmoil of companies like Adam Aircraft and Eclipse going under and they boast goals much more ambitious than many companies: fly 4 people 1500 nm at 400 knots...with a single engine.

I got to talk to a Stratos engineer at Airventure and he explained some of the company's strategy and reasoning. After talking to him, I'm pretty optimistic for their company.

The VLJ concept was largely born because engine technology finally started producing power plants that could work on such a small scale. Some smart entrepreneurs saw this potential and started designing aircraft that would try to take advantage of this technology. They envisioned air taxi, personal aircraft and flight training as possible markets. I think these are all valid markets for Very Light Jets, but Stratos arrived in this market from a very different direction.

The Stratos designers started their concept with the Lancair IV-P. In case you're new enough to aviation to think that the Cirrus SR-22 or the Cessna 400 is the peak of piston performance, think again because you are wrong. As far as I can tell, there isn't a plane out there that can match the performance and economy of this Lancair. It is a pressurized, 4-seat, piston single that cruises at 330 mph for upwards of 1500 miles, burning no more than 22 gph of avgas. Yes, at those speeds it will give some of the VLJs a run for their money. The only drawback to the IV-P I can think of is that it's a kit. The Cessna 400 evolved from the idea of a Lancair aircraft being factory built, but you'll see that doing so cost it a lot of performance.

So, there was a group of people (some of whom worked for Lancair) that loved the Lancair IV-P and eventually got to wondering: if you fly a IV-P, what do you move up into?

It's a pretty valid question and there isn't much on the market that you could consider a move up. They decided that the answer was, "Nothing...I guess we'd better build it." The concept they came up with is the Stratos S714.

Technically, the 714 may fit at the upper end of the VLJ category, but it was not designed as a VLJ. It was designed to have the performance that it would take to get Lancair owners to give up their aircraft.

This group of people formed a company and got to work, but they'd seen the fall of some very promising VLJ manufacturers. They realized that it would be unwise to rush things or try to use aircraft deposits for development. As such, they've been hard at work designing for a couple years. They're finally to the point where they feel the design is solid and they're ready to build an aircraft and work on certification. That means they're finally looking for serious investors. (Give them a call if you're interested...)

I really like their approach, I think it shows a measured logic that will help them stay successful and survive in their tough market. I hope that by taking their time with the design process, their aircraft will meet it's promised performance numbers without any major modifications. Though this jet certainly has potential in the air taxi or flight training markets, it seems designed to be a personal jet. I think it will excel at this and it will find some customers waiting as soon as it is ready. Good luck Stratos, I'm looking forward to hearing about your jet's first flight!