Sydney-based aircraft sales team David Crawford and Olivia Sainsbury have scored a coup by being appointed global distributors for the revolutionary Swiss-built Sirius Jet convertiplane.
Through their company Boss N Queen, the former Cirrus executives have been charged with creating a world-wide distribution network ready for when the hydrogen-powered transporter enters service some time in 2028.
And with that comes the exciting news that the very first certified Sirius Jet will be delivered into the hands of a customer in Australia.
The Sirius Jet is a clean-sheet eVTOL design that uses a hydrogen-electric power train to drive 28 300 mm 1 kN electric engines. Performance projections show a cruise altitude of 25,000 feet at a speed of 280 knots, producing less than 60 db of noise.
Built in Switzerland in collaboration with BMW, the Sirius Jet comes from the inspiration of former Antonov executives Alexey Popov and Oleksandr Los, who state their mission as guiding the regional aviation industry into a sustainable future using hydrogen energy.
The result is an aircraft that is creating new envelopes in terms of construction, design, powertrain and capability.
"This is a traditional jet in performance, in terms of a light jet, so its range is 1100 nm, flies at flight levels, but it also has vertical take-off and landing, and runs on hydrogen fuel," Crawford told Australian Flying this week. "The running cost is about eight times less than a traditional light jet. And it's carbon-neutral.
"So it's differentiated from both eVTOLs and traditional jet lights."
"And it's point-to-point, so it doesn't need an airport runway," Sainsbury added, "but it can land at an airport on a runway."
The capabilities of the Sirius Jet sound very much like those emanating from the urban mobility industry at the moment, but Crawford and Sainsbury are keen not to place their product in the eVTOL box.
"This is a convertiplane," Crawford stressed. "An eVTOL is vertical take-off and landing, point-to-point air taxi effectively, flying under 10,000 feet doing 30-60 minute hops.
"The Sirius is a transporter for long-haul regional travel; Brisbane to Melbourne direct in about three hours. It has the sort of performance you would expect from a traditional jet."
Two versions of the jet are being marketed at the moment: the long-range CEO and short-range Adventure. The CEO model has a range of 1150 nm carrying three pax, whilst the Adventure will haul pilot plus five, but the range is reduced to 570 nm. Seats are traded for fuel capacity, although Sirius will offer an optional extra fuel tank for the Adventure to extend the range.
Whilst the CEO is about point-to-point personal transport, the Adventure is about taking you just about anywhere you like.
Boss N Queen see either version fitting in well with Australian customers, and are expecting half-a-dozen entries in the order book by the end of the year. Three are already confirmed, with the first certified production aircraft scheduled for our shores.
"We have four targets markets in Australia," Crawford explained. "The first one is the private owner who has multiple businesses in multiple locations; who has to get from, say, Brisbane to Armidale to Innisfail in one day.
"Currently they would take a private jet or travel commercially, whereas the Sirius jet can take them point-to-point. You could fly to a winery in Orange direct from Brisbane and not have to fly into Orange Airport and drive out to the winery.
"Secondly, the corporate market. Every company in the world now is trying to figure out how to have a carbon-neutral footprint and have zero emissions. The Sirius is an alternative to flying executives in jets and will definitely reduce their company's carbon footprint.
"Obviously that's going to be very valuable for some of the largest companies in the world, so we're planning to market strategically to the larger corporations and government departments.
"Thirdly, the charter market. Air charter in Australia is a struggling industry. It costs someone $3-4000 to get a seat on a private jet. If you book a jet from Brisbane to Sydney it will cost you $20,000 regardless of the number of seats.
"A Sirius jet will move people around for about $100 per hour. In terms of economy, we will be able to increase the number of people that will have access to private travel.
"There is also the traditional market of pilots who are flying a Cessna or a Cirrus," Sainsbury chipped in with the fourth. "They will find the Sirius attractive as well."
Their coal-face experience at Cirrus has given them strong insight into the demands and trends of customer investing in new aircraft, and they understand the value of an aeroplane that will provide jet performance at the operating cost of an SR22. But with a sticker price of $US 4-6 million, surely the Australian market will baulk at signing order forms?
"There are plenty of customers out there happy to pay $3.5-4 million for a Cirrus Vision jet," Crawford believes, "but they were not happy with paying $1500 per hour to operate it!
"The ongoing operating costs are more of a stumbling block than the initial capital outlay. That's why the SR22 is so successful: even with the high cost of purchase, the operating cost is quite low.
"So there is money around to buy an asset, but there's not a lot around to operate the asset."
According to Olivia Sainsbury, the BMW connection is also proving an attraction for customers.
"We brought BMW on board and they have 100% confidence in the product," she said. "And I think we're going to see a shift in customers; people who ordinarily wouldn't have thought of buying their own plane and hiring a pilot.
"We want to make it accessible to more people, and it's BMW's job to make it attractive and ready for the customer. Just having BMW as a collaborator tells the world that this is something we have put a lot of thought into."
But when it comes to highly-efficient, futuristic designs, general aviation doesn't have a good track record in adopting them in large numbers. Ask Beechcraft about their Starship experience. So is the Sirius Jet too far ahead of its time? Crawford doesn't believe so.
"The market is very ready for this aircraft," he said "If you look at sales figures from our competitors in the eVTOL market, they're all selling thousands of units. Hills Helicopter has 1300 units on order and haven't built a helicopter yet! Lilium has over 1000 on order and still doesn't have an aeroplane.
"The market is ready for hydrogen and the future; it's just a matter of delivering the product."
And on the subject of deliveries, Sirius Aviation already has 113 firm orders from around the world with Crawford and Sainsbury expanding on that almost every week.
A demonstrator is scheduled by the end of this year, and the first flight in April-May 2025. That first delivery into Australia should happen in 2028.
By that time, Australia should have a plethora of vertiports in urban areas and a network of hydrogen refueling stations along the eastern seaboard to facilitate aircraft like the Sirius Jet as they revolutionise general aviation as we know it.
More information on the Sirius Jet is on the Boss N Queen website.