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Bob Bornhofen: Excel Jet's Performance Sports Jet

May/June 2006

Excel Jet's Sport Jet
Affordable, Insurable Performance Jets
By Larry Stevens

For too long a cloud cover of false starts, failed efforts and unfulfilled promises have hung over the expectations for a personal jet becoming available to the general aviation public. Now, at last, a ray of sunlight is about to break through to open the skies to those owner/operators who want a fast, affordable and insurable jet that's an easy transition for the General Aviation pilot. Enter the Sport-Jet which is the product of Excel Jet, Ltd.

If you don't believe the personal jet is a reality, just ask Bob Bornhofen, founder and president of Excel-Jet and developer of the Sport-Jet. "Ever since Bill Lear revolutionized corporate travel by moving executives from piston aircraft to small affordable jet aircraft - GA pilots have been asking, 'Why can't I have an affordable jet?' After 40 years of waiting, the time has come. The personal jet will be the next generation of aircraft for the general aviation pilot, and the Sport-Jet will be at the head of the pack."

Bornhofen brings to the endeavor an impressive set of credentials and professional accomplishments. After receiving his undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering at Parks College of Aeronautical Technology in 1966 and his masters in aerospace engineering at the University of Arizona in 1967, he spent 13 years with TRW and Hughes Aircraft leading projects for the Apollo space program and later working on military satellites.

He then struck out on his own in 1980 to leverage the skills he had refined as a systems engineering specialist. Over the ensuing years, entrepreneur Bornhofen gained experience in starting up and running companies moving from prototype to production and to the marketplace quickly and economically. "The key is knowing how to integrate existing and emerging technologies with minimum developmental cost and risk. Almost anything can be brought to market with enough money and time. The challenge is to build a better product at a fraction of cost and time. As an example, in the early 90s, Bornhofen developed a product in less than 18 months and under $500,000 that the military was still trying to obtain from the giants of industry after 10 years and over $10 million expended." As an entrepreneur and product designer, you have a different perspective when your next pay check depends solely upon timely success."

Bornhofen took up flying in the early '90s, and after selling a company he had co-founded, he put his skills and energies into building a Seawind airplane kit. That got his visionary engineer's mind revving and led to his developing the Maverick Twinjet. Following that kitplane's successful test flights and some exposure to the insurance issues, Bornhofen began in 2003 to concentrate his decades of experience and lessons learned into his Sport-Jet, a single-engine derivative of the Maverick.

One of the lessons driven home for him was the importance of addressing insurance underwriters concerns. "Insurance, not the FAA, makes the rules that affect a plane's affordability, and such things as how many hours a pilot must have before the industry is comfortable with him or her flying without a mentor," is critically important notes Bornhofen.

Thus, comments such as those received in a recent letter from John D. Lord of AirSure Ltd. have increased the confidence of the Sport-Jet's creator that he has a winning aircraft. Lord writes, "Market acceptance for your aircraft should be tremendous and we are behind you 100%. Weighing in all the factors which are considered for a new aircraft coming to market, we feel encouraged that you have developed a product for which we will have no problem developing competitive insurance rates."

"Our goal was to develop an aircraft that the insurance companies would support. We achieved this by using their concerns as design criteria. The Sport-Jet will offer the GA pilot maximum performance in the most insurable package" says Bornhofen.

Another group to address is potential customers; and if Jim Stewart, chairman of the board of the largest local financial institution in Colorado, is any indication, the Sport-Jet is just what the general aviation market desires for 21st century air travel.

"I hangar my Mooney at the same airfield where Bob is building his Sport-Jet," says the former Air Force fighter pilot who has logged several thousand hours of flying. "Bob is an engineering genius; and when I saw the Sport-Jet, I realized that this was the basic concept that I'd been seeking for a long time. It offers sex appeal as well as exceptional performance in such areas as fuel flow, speed, comfort and low stall speeds."

Other features include the latest avionics, FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control), a Williams FJ-33 engine with 1,500 pounds of thrust, major components that are easily replaceable, an all-glass cockpit and a clamshell door for easy access to a roomy (and quiet) cabin where a passenger in a back seat can stretch out without his or her feet touching the seat in front.

The Sport-Jet has a mid-wing placement favored by insurers around the world, according to John Lord. The aircraft's aluminum wings can be removed from the carbon fiber fuselage easily so the plane can be transported and repaired with minimum cost. "Getting a plane transported to a repair facility quickly addresses another insurance issue. Insurance companies are not thrilled about paying the 'loss of utilization' costs which can be several times more than the actual repair cost."

Bornhofen recalls how he had the "unexpected pleasure" of demonstrating the value of the mid-wing design during a test flight of the Maverick. The aircraft had a rather severe landing that pushed the gear through the wings. "We verified that the plane can be damaged on a runway and fixed in a matter of weeks at minimal cost. In this incident, there was no fuel loss and no spar damage. That is reassuring to insurance companies who know gear-up or hard landings will happen; and it's reassuring to pilots who don't want to be penalized for the rest of their flying days with high insurance premiums just because they made a minor mistake."

Bornhofen insists that his Sport-Jet should not be classified in the Very Light Jet category but rather as a "Personal Jet." "VLJ's fall into a broad spectrum that's typically a twin-engine aircraft that cruise above 32,000 feet, are 6-place with club-type seating, sell for around $2 million dollars and are designed for air taxi and small to medium corporate level flying. A personal jet has, on the other hand, a single engine, seating for four plus a jump seat and cruises at 25,000 feet. This eliminates the need for backup oxygen and emergency decent procedures; two more things that insurance underwriters look at. They typically will have a maximum flight time of three hours, sells for one million dollars and are oriented to the owner/operator GA pilot."

Bornhofen sees his target customer as a non-professional pilot with around 500 hours who wants to move up to superior speed (e.g., from 150 to 350 knots) and a quieter, more comfortable cabin. Of particular importance is the ability to land at any local and regional airport without being constrained by temperature and density altitude. "This aircraft is for someone who likes to fly a lot and wants to fly more efficiently. The Sport- Jet owner wants to graduate to turbine power and the nice, clear skies a jet offers over props," Bornhofen says.

Currently operating out of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Excel-Jet will build its production plant in Guthrie, Oklahoma. The Guthrie Industrial Development Authority is providing Excel-Jet with up to $5 million in incentives to relocate its facility. "There's an entrepreneurial enthusiasm at the Guthrie airport, and we will be co-located with some great talent like Spirit Wing and Zivko," Bornhofen says. Excel-Jet plans to make the move soon after the Sport-Jet's first flight.

Meanwhile, Bornhofen forges ahead with his core team of multi-talented experts that he likes to compare to the skunk works led by Lockheed's legendary Kelly Johnson of P38, F-180, U-2 and YF-12A design fame. "We're a small, focused, cost-effective group that can find solutions to problems in a matter of hours," he says. "Some companies pride themselves in the hundreds of millions spent to first fly a prototype and then hundreds more to certify; we believe the industry needs a more cost efficient model. We are going to do an equivalent job for our market for substantially less and will have a superior product."

Bornhofen expects to have completed initial FAR (Federal Aviation Regulation) test flights and begun the two-year FAA certification process by early summer, which will mean the first Sport-Jets should be ready for market by no later than the third quarter of 2008. Excel-Jet will not start taking orders until after it has completed the first flight tests.

"Right now we're concentrating on keeping or beating the performance numbers we've set for ourselves. We're right on target with weight and balance; the first major nemesis in keeping product development on track," says Bornhofen with obvious satisfaction.

Bornhofen has refused to use pre-sales to help finance the project. He believes the way to instill confidence in an investing and consumer market that has become jaded by other developers, whose product did not meet expectations, is to build the plane, ensure it flies properly and get customer feedback for continued improvement.

"There is a large and growing aviation market segment that has not been serviced," says Jim Stewart, who is now providing advice on bringing the Sport-Jet to market and helping with Excel-Jet's human interfaces. "A lot of industry money has been spent, but there's nothing coming off the assembly line. So, right now Bob is providing the bulk of the financing himself for the Sport-Jet. He's the drive behind it and he's bringing it to market on his nickel."

Mr. Ron McElroy, a test pilot who is familiar with most of the VLJ projects, has a similar view. "Bornhofen successfully demonstrated the Maverick over 7 years ago, before we even heard of the term "light jet". The new turbofan engines now being used on all the VLJs did not even exist back then so he developed his own to get the plane airborne. That shows dedication and knowledge deeper than merely assembling some airframe components. I am convinced the Sport-Jet will benefit from this pioneering attitude and commitment."

Stewart claims that Bornhofen is a lone eagle that history books will some day be praising. "He's a superb talent who's still undiscovered, but once he gets the data points validated, people will start to go crazy over his ingenuity as the first person to create a practical small personal jet."

Read the Original article by Larry Stevens here