What is it (aircraft)

Tom-D

Tom-D

Taxi to Parking
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Feb 23, 2005
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Tom-D
Cabin class, 8-10 pax, composite, fore and aft pusher puller center line twin, with a high horizontal, elevator.
 
Thanks, that's it. one showed up at BVS.
 
aaaaah yes, making a small fortune in the airplane business.
 
The company does not exist anymore. Not sure who owns the assets now.
 
The turbo couldn't make it ,Adam aircraft had a jet on the drawing blocks ,looking for financing.
 
Yeah the 700 didn't make it as well. Sadly, just like the Starship, it's another Rutan design that didn't make it in the certified world. :(
 
Greg Bockelman said:
The company does not exist anymore. Not sure who owns the assets now.
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From the link

In April 2011 Triton Aerospace, the new holder of the type certificate, indicated that they will redesign the aircraft, using what Thomas Hsueh, owner of Triton Aerospace termed "proper engineering", to shed 1,000 lb (454 kg) of empty weight and recertify it with the intention of putting it back into production

Triton Aerospace is a tenant of the BVS industrial complex.
 
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Adam's biggest problem was the fact that the beautiful airframe took zillions of labor hours to manufacture.

What I find interesting is that when it was on the market for $1 million, people criticized it for having the performance of a Baron. Now look at the prices of new Barons.
 
There is one at Petaluma. I'd sure hate to be the guy that owns it though, once the airfame is timed out, it's done for.

Unless the new type certificate holder has a work around in place.
 
I thought they didn't succeed because by the time they were in production nobody was interested in a piston twin for that price. Then they went to the jet to compete in the VLJ market. Remember when VLJs were going to darken the skies? That didn't happen. I saw the jet fly a few times since Adam was based here. I also knew a number of people involved with the project, all gone now.
 
Everskyward said:
I thought they didn't succeed because by the time they were in production nobody was interested in a piston twin for that price. Then they went to the jet to compete in the VLJ market. Remember when VLJs were going to darken the skies? That didn't happen. I saw the jet fly a few times since Adam was based here. I also knew a number of people involved with the project, all gone now.
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Yep. Definitely a domino effect. No one was interested in a $1M piston twin when Eclipse was saying they'd deliver a twin jet for the same price and Cirrus, Diamond and Piper were touting small jets as well.

Now, I believe, the market is different. There is a fairly large number of people who fly aging pressurized cabin class planes that would like to have a new (or at least newer) one, but they don't exist. I believe that is part of the reason the turboprop singles are so popular.
 
Yes, at the time 421C's and 414A's were bringing $600K for nice ones, maybe more, but like you said, for $1M you could get a BRAND NEW JET!!:yes::yes: It had a smaller cabin, but it was a JET that anyone could fly!!:rolleyes: It's not a huge stretch for a guy paying $600K for a piston twin to pay $1M for a jet, especially if it's for personal transportation. I think the other issues for Adam included being a new design, not really doing anything better than what was already available, limited useful load, and the push-pull configuration had only been done successfully one other time. IF it were fast, 250 knots or so, and carried 4 folks 800 miles, it might have had a better chance. From what I remember it was a 200 knot airplane.

Ken Ibold said:
Yep. Definitely a domino effect. No one was interested in a $1M piston twin when Eclipse was saying they'd deliver a twin jet for the same price and Cirrus, Diamond and Piper were touting small jets as well.

Now, I believe, the market is different. There is a fairly large number of people who fly aging pressurized cabin class planes that would like to have a new (or at least newer) one, but they don't exist. I believe that is part of the reason the turboprop singles are so popular.
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From what i understand they took some frequent service parts and built the airplane around them. Something like 4 hours just to remove a main battery.


An airplane that needs to shed a 1,000 pounds? YGFSM
 
I turned off an ELT on one of them still being built at their hangar one night. 20 some A&Ps crawling all over that thing, not a one of them knew how to shut off the ELT. :)

Adam Aircraft Parkway is still there, as are many of the buildings which mostly stand empty but have some businesses in some of them.
 
Velocity173 said:
Yeah the 700 didn't make it as well. Sadly, just like the Starship, it's another Rutan design that didn't make it in the certified world. :(
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Interestingly enough, I attended a lecture by Burt Rutan a few years back and the subject of the A-500 came up during Q&A. It was a contract job for Scaled Composites. George Adam came to Scaled Composites to have them develop and build a center line thrust twin prototype. Actually, Burt tried to talk Mr. Adam out of it. He tried to get him interested in developing an asymmetric design like his Boomerang instead, but Mr. Adam had a lot of time in Cessna Skymasters (an airplane Burt described as "a terrible airplane") and had his mind set on the center line design.

So, Scaled Composites built the M309 CarbonAero for them and it met the design requirements of the time. In the process of certification and adding features and amenities to the A500, it got heavy, really heavy. So bad, that with full fuel, it couldn't carry a 170 lb pilot. In the end, the A500 was an under performing, complex to build, expensive piston twin in an era that had already transitioned to turbine power.
 
Dav8or said:
Interestingly enough, I attended a lecture by Burt Rutan a few years back and the subject of the A-500 came up during Q&A. It was a contract job for Scaled Composites. George Adam came to Scaled Composites to have them develop and build a center line thrust twin prototype. Actually, Burt tried to talk Mr. Adam out of it. He tried to get him interested in developing an asymmetric design like his Boomerang instead, but Mr. Adam had a lot of time in Cessna Skymasters (an airplane Burt described as "a terrible airplane") and had his mind set on the center line design.

So, Scaled Composites built the M309 CarbonAero for them and it met the design requirements of the time. In the process of certification and adding features and amenities to the A500, it got heavy, really heavy. So bad, that with full fuel, it couldn't carry a 170 lb pilot. In the end, the A500 was an under performing, complex to build, expensive piston twin in an era that had already transitioned to turbine power.
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The Boomerang. Now that is a cool aircraft. Glad too see one of his workers refurbished it a couple years ago.
 
Adam got "jet fever" as I like to call it and destroyed any possibility of succeeding with the A500. I think they ultimately could've survived if they refined the A500 and made it into a useful plane in that niche vs. dropping it to chase the jet dream. The 421's (and similar) of the world aren't getting any younger, and sooner or later some replacements will be needed.

The new owner is a bit naive or utterly unfamiliar with the modern FAA if he thinks he can shed 1,000 lbs as well.
 
Sac Arrow said:
There is one at Petaluma. I'd sure hate to be the guy that owns it though, once the airfame is timed out, it's done for.

Unless the new type certificate holder has a work around in place.
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Or convert to Experimental / Prototype or Exibition...
 
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