The history of late in the year flights by companies looking to make good on promises to fly before yearend is long, and this year’s success story goes to Epic Aircraft, which flew its E1000 on December 23, 2015, beating its self-imposed deadline by nearly a week. The greatest story on the subject is that Learjet’s Lear Fan flew for the first time, according to British regulators, on December 32nd of 1981, in order to make a funding deadline. No such slight of hand was necessary for the folks at Epic.
The single-engine turboprop E1000 is a cool airplane, and the conforming prototype is sure to push the limits of what the proof of concept plane could pull off. Powered by a 1200-hp Pratt & Whitney PT-6 turboprop, the sleek carbon fiber bird is projected to hit a max cruise of 325 knots with a ceiling of 34,000 feet—high for a turboprop—and with a max range of a whopping 1650-nm. At a price tag of $2.95 million, nicely equipped, says Epic, the E1000 will add a strong new player in a busy market segment, one that might add some competition to an already competitive field.
