The Polish civil aviation authority has approved the flight test programme of the Flaris LAR1 single-engine personal jet, enabling SP-YLE to begin another round of flights. The Polish CAA recently issued a permit to continue flight tests and evaluate the maximum speed. This means that at FL 310 the Flaris will be able to reach speeds exceeding 325 kts.

“We are glad that the Zielona Góra airport has been reopened after a few months' break as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, and that we can now continue flight tests,” says Rafał Ładziński, the director of the Flaris project.

The tests that are starting tomorrow are designed to record the characteristics of the aircraft with the landing gear retracted. They are also intended to determine the aircraft's performance, including assessing its acceleration, evaluating its range and validating the predictions regarding its economical parameters, such as lower fuel consumption and three times lower operating costs compared to other VLJ aircraft.

The LAR1 is designed to reach a cruising speed of Mach 0.72 or 430 kts. The expected range of the aircraft is over 1,900 nm. “If the flight tests confirm our predictions about the plane's performance, including a take-off run on a grass airstrip shorter than 300m, the Flaris LAR1 will set new standards for flexible, ultra-fast, economical and ecological flight profiles,” continues Ładziński. “During its maiden flight, at full capacity, we managed to confirm such a take-off run on a concrete airstrip of similar length. We expect to repeat this success.”

If the previous performance parameters of the Flaris LAR1 are confirmed, it will allow for a more efficient use of thousands of small airports, grass airstrips and European aviation clubs.