Diamond D-Jet

The Diamond D-Jet is a single engine very light jet developed by Diamond Aircraft. As of April 22, 2012 the Diamond D-Jet program has been suspended, with three Diamond D-Jets built to date. The three Diamond D-Jets are development aircraft and support the flight testing program of the aircraft. Flight testing of the Diamond D-Jet was suspended for a short time in March 2011. Further development of the D-Jet program was restarted in September 2011 after Diamond Aircraft was able to obtain investments to keep the D-Jet program alive. Then in 2013 Diamond suspended the D-Jet program because it was not able to obtain addition needed investments to continue flight testing and advancing the program.

Diamond D-Jet History

On January 14, 2003 Diamond Aircraft Industries Gmbh announced that it was going to develop the Diamond D-Jet. In their press release they said that they planned for the D-Jet to have a 4,700 pound maximum takeoff weight, capable of carrying 5 people. Also they announced that they we focused on achieving the following performance numbers for the Diamond D-Jet: 25,000 foot service ceiling, speed of 315 knots, capability to takeoff from a 2,000 foot runway, and a fuel consumption of 34 gallons per hour. On March 3, 2003 they selected the Williams International FJ33-4 engine to be the Diamond D-Jet engine (This was latter changed to the FJ33-5A in 2008). Diamond Aircraft also selected the Garmin G1000 avionics suite to be the Diamond D-Jet avionics on June 26, 2005. Diamond Aircraft Industries Gmbh put it's North American division, Diamond Aircraft Industries, Inc., in charge of the D-Jet program. The first flight of the D-Jet was in 2006, which was originally planned to happen 2004.

The First Diamond D-Jet flew on April 18, 2006 at London International Airport (CYXU) in London, Ontario, Canada. Diamond D-Jet number 2 (S/N 002) made its first flight on September 14, 2007 and was the first conforming D-Jet in terms of aerodynamic and structural design. On April 14, 2008 the third Diamond D-Jet made its first flight and is being used to develop critical systems, including avionics, fuel, the autopilot, and anti-ice systems.

The Diamond D-Jet Today:

Diamond D-Jet developments have slowed down. Diamond Aircraft restarted development in September 2011 and reached an agreement with Medrar Financial Group to fund D-Jet development in November 2011. This deal fell apart and in February 2013 Diamond Aircraft announced that it has suspended the Diamond D-Jet very light jet program. The future of the D-Jet is currently unknown.

To learn more about the Diamond D-Jet aircraft visit the other Diamond D-Jet information pages on the website.

Diamond D-Jet Photo

Above Diamond D-Jet Photo or Diamond D-Jet Number 2 C-FPTM by RuthAS on Wikimedia Commons. Photo (only) released under a Creative Commons License.