They needed a larger engines, and the time to market for a new engine would take too long. When we first saw the mockup in 2021 my guess was the William FJ44-4 series, which is the only one that would make sense, and they would need to cruise at FL470 for the range claim. Honda had the same idea :) I expect that the final specifications on the aircraft will change over the next few years. It is a beautiful aircraft and should be very popular in the market.
@@crwmdp9 Runway excursions are still a big problem. As a CFI for 40+ years, the most common issue is pilots not flying stabilized approaches, usually too fast. There are other factors as well such as landing on runways too short, especially when wet/contaminated. You can see that example with the Phenom 300 in Hawthorne --- way too fast and runway too short and not grooved. Training, at least at Flight Safety, is excellent but once pilots leave training, regretfully they don't always follow the proper profiles.
The headroom is similar to other jets in its class, e.g. CJ4. Tigre is in the video and fits in the seats, especially when sliding the seat out from the fuselage. For more room the options would be a PC-24 or Phenom 300, both nice but much less range. Other options include the Ascend, which has more room but is slower with less range--- then of course there are much larger jets. It is always a trade-off - size, range, acquisition/operating costs, speed. My guess is the Echelon will be faster than it's direct competitors, with a probably max cruise of 0.78M
It is difficult to say what the price will be in 2028-2030 when the production version is released. In today's market, in comparison with a CJ4, Phenom 300, or PC-24, and possibly the XLS+ - I would estimate $14.5-15 million.
