Tiny Jet

Egg surprise #4 - Small excavator: Egg surprise #5 - Small fire truck:

The DDB Chicago releases 'Tiny Jet' for Starburst

Recent attempts to respond to the questions, "How do they make Starburst smell so juicy?", explained a catering man in the new 30-second commercial: "They use evil little fighters to fire the juice into every Starburst. Unexplained use of the term "evil" aside, it's a kind of funny concept when the combat plane floats over a hamper and through the galley into the lounge to fire succulent rockets at a consumable starburst before the jet hits a surprising end.

"Courage is needed," says the moving catering artist, followed by the slogan "inexplicable Juicy.

That little engine that wasn't capable

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Today's flights

It' s August 26, 2002, a clear, sunny day at Albuquerque International Sunport. According to a company statement, the first test run of this model will do no less than "change the transport environment forever". "The Eclipse 500's promise of $837,500 pricing label - an amazingly low number, hardly a fourth of the next best jet's - and 56 cents per miles of straight operational costs have earned contributions for more than 2,000 aircraft, potentially making it the best-selling personal jet in aviation before it even takes off.

These are the keys to the Eclipse's outstanding value for money and performance: a Williams International EJ22 fanjet set, groundbreaking power units designed by Sam Williams, the famous small engine maker. With Eclipse's so-called "disruptive" Eclipse fuel cell the EJ22 has delivered 770 lbs of propulsion in soil testing, but with 85 lbs you could take it.

It is the opening that can make the Eclipse 500 a landscaper. The Albuquerque Tower frees the N500EA for take-off, and test driver Bill Bubb loosens the brake and pushes the two throttle forwards. Within the thin, kilometre-high heat of the atmosphere, the J22s can only produce half of their nominal thrusts. Yet, when the little jet returns to the jubilant staff in the Eclipse hanger, it's already clear that the new EJ22 thrusters won't chop it.

EJ22s never again made the Eclipse 500 fly. Eclipse Aviation released three month later: "EJ22 is not a practical option for the Eclipse 500 and Williams International has not fulfilled its covenants. "Williams admitted that it had encountered "a number of challenges" with the EJ22, but stressed that it had fulfilled the agreement, which meant that the plane had become too light.

The Eclipse company hastily entered into a contract with Pratt & Whitney to design a smaller variant of a more traditional motor. PW610F would generate 900 lbs of thrusts, but it would be 260 lbs - tripling the EJ22's overall mass. Adding performance would give the Eclipse 500 a slightly better pace and climbing ability, but there was one major drawback: an unladen 700 pound rise in gross vehicle weights and a 20 per cent rise in mileage.

Thirty years later, the flying test of the P&W-powered Eclipse 500 runs without a hitch, but it is still not clear whether it will alter the transport environment. Williams EJ22's failed attempt to gain Federal Aviation Administration Eclipse approval and the jet engines' vanishing from sight have been harsh disillusionments for those who have been longing for years for a certificated jet that could result in a new breed of small, accessible jet aircraft.

It was also a stroke of luck for the call of now 84-year-old Sam Williams, who discovered the small turboprop in the sixties and stayed his undisputed role model for more than three years. William wasn't the first to make a tiny power plant. As early as the early fifties, the Turboméca Palas with 330 lbs of push produced in France already provided the inspiration for the development of half a dozen Euro-Minijets.

Palas evolved into the Marboré range (660 to 1,058 lbs thrust), which powers a range of small army aircraft such as the Morane-Saulnier 760 Paris four-seater and the Morane-Saulnier T-37 coaches. Microturbo, a company based in France, reduced the rod in the 1970' by using the 220-pound TRS 18 push rod, which was flown in the Italian Caproni model TRS 18J and the US design Jim Bede's BD-5J air show jet.

With a length of only 24 inch, the TRS 18 is still the smallest jet ever powered by a crewed airplane. Even more badly, small planes are punished by the merciless miniaturization expansive mathematics: