Very Light Jets

Popular Mechanics has a short, fact-filled piece on “Very Light Jets,” or VLCs, a new class of consumer jets that are not only small—two pilots, three to four passengers—but inexpensive, at least compared to current entry-level jets. (Prices are around one to three million.) They new class of jets, which some are betting will spur a new short-hop commuter revolution, have been made possible by the development of tiny new jet engines.

That success spurred a Williams effort to reduce the jet engine another notch, from Light to Very Light. In 1996, the company partnered with NASA on a $100 million project to develop an even smaller experimental jet engine, the FJX-2. With three exquisitely tiny compressors and a weight of just 85 pounds, the radical and complex little FJX-2 churned out an astounding 770 pounds of thrust in NASA’s test cell. The unprecedented 9:1 thrust-to-weight ratio was nearly double that of any commercial jet engine.

Very Light Jets [PopularMechanics.com]