First Flight G180 Utility Jet

NTPS graduate Gerard Guillaumaud made the first flight of the Grob Aerspace G180 SPn Utility Jet on 20 July 2005.

NTPS graduate Gerard Guillaumaud made the first flight of the Grob Aerspace G180 SPn Utility Jet on 20 July 2005. Gerard graduated from the NTPS TB-2 Course in 1999. The TB-2 Course was a nine week course tailored to meet the requirements of the German LBA for a civil test pilot license. The course has evolved and today is a 15 week Light Aircraft Flight Test Course that incorporates the same performance and flying qualities academics that is given to Professional Course students.

The Grob Utility Jet flew 24 sorties in the first six weeks accomplishing significant initial envelope expansion. JAA certification as a single pilot, nine passenger aircraft is targeted for the first quarter of 2007. The aircraft will have a maximum weight balanced field length of 3,000 ft and is capable of 1,800 nm range with full fuel.

Al Lawless, former instructor at NTPS while Gerard was a student, joined Grob before the first flight as the Chief of Flight Test. Al also previously worked at Cessna Aircraft as a flight test engineer.

Photo by Thomas Skamljic. Thomas is also a graduate of the NTPS TB-2 Course (2001) as well as a former student of Al Lawless. See more high resolution images of the Grob G180 here.