VisionAire Vantage
In early 1993, Jim Rice and Tom Stark of the
fledgling VisionAire Corporation visited Scaled Composites
with conceptual designs for a new single-engine business
jet. Rice, a successful entrepreneur and general aviation
pilot, had a vision that such an aircraft would be a market
success; Stark, an experienced aerospace engineer and manager,
shared that vision, and got to work making it a reality.
Following a design and feasibilty study performed
by Scaled in late 1993, and a bit of time while Rice and
Stark put together their financial backing, Scaled was given
the go-ahead to build a proof-of-concept (POC) prototype
on 8 March 1996. Only one problem, though: they wanted to
show photographs and films of the airplane flying at the
1996 National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA) convention,
scheduled to begin on 19 November.
Under a $2.5 million fixed-price contract,
Scaled rolled out the Vantage to a large group of customers
and press just 8 months later (8 November), and performed
a picture-perfect first flight on 16 November. The photos
made it to NBAA, and the Vantage POC got to work in flight
testing.
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