Nextant Value Light Jet

This year Nextant Aerospace is launching an attempt to enter Europe’s market, after achieving the European Aviation Safety Agency certification for the 400XT in November last year.

According to the U.S. company’s president, Sean McGeough, its remanufactured and reinvented take on Hawker Beechcraft’s Beechjet 400 is delivering an improved performance at reduced cost. “There is a great opportunity for selling an aircraft like this in a down market,” McGeough briefed at the London-area Farnborough Airport.

The alteration of Beechjet 400s into 400XTs involves a 6,000-hour remanufacturing process at Nextant’s factory in Cleveland, Ohio. The new aircraft is more than 85 percent original and qualifies for bonus depreciation under U.S. tax rules. New features include the Williams FJ44-3AP engines and a Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite. The airframe has an aerodynamic makeover involving redesigned pylons, streamlined engine cowlings, a new engine beam and mounting system and an improved horizontal stabilizer.

With an initial with two-year warranty (three years for the engines), the 3,050-pound-thrust FJ44-3AP turbofans promise a 32-percent improvement in specific fuel consumption compared with the Beechjet 400A’s Pratt & Whitney CanadaJT15D-5s. The 400XT’s range is 2,005 nm, carrying four passengers and NBAA IFR reserves. Close to that of the CJ4 and Phenom 300, the 400XT with a high-speed cruise of 460 knots, is 16 knots faster.