SyberJet Aircraft (SJA) is an American aircraft manufacturer. The company's headquarters is in Cedar City, Utah adjacent to the Cedar City Regional Airport with additional engineering offices and manufacturing, service, repair and fatigue test facilities near and on the San Antonio International Airport in San Antonio, Texas.
Founded as Swearingen Aircraft in 1959, the company was renamed the Sino Swearingen Aircraft Company in 1995 before being purchased in August 2008 by Emirates Investment and Development Corporation and renamed the Emivest Aerospace Corporation. In April 2011 the assets of Emivest Aerospace were purchased by MT, a LLC of Cedar City, Utah, and the company began doing business as SyberJet Aircraft.
History
Swearingen Aircraft
Swearingen Aircraft was founded by Ed Swearingen in 1959. Early work by the company included the development of prototype aircraft for other manufacturers; such as the Twin Comanche prototype developed for Piper Aircraft during 1962 and the development of several research helicopters for the Bell Helicopter Company, work which led to the HueyCobra. The company also developed modifications of other designs, an activity Ed Swearingen had been involved in prior to his forming Swearingen Aircraft. These modification programs included the Excalibur 800 conversion of the Beechcraft Twin Bonanza, (because the combined output of its two Lycoming IO-720 engines was 800 horsepower); airframe improvements included modifying the cabin to allow entry via an airstair instead of over the RH wing to a door, and landing gear doors that fully enclosed the wheels when retracted. The airstair was factory-fitted by Beechcraft during manufacture of the ultimate J50 model of the Twin Bonanza. The Queen Air development of the Twin Bonanza also received the Swearingen treatment, the Queen Air Excalibur having less extensive modifications, also involving fitting of IO-720s, replacing the more troublesome and lower-power geared Lycoming engines installed at manufacture, and the enclosed landing gear doors (the Queen Air was designed from the outset with an airstair). The United States Army had several of its U-8 versions of the Queen Air modified to this standard. Excalibur aircraft are easily distinguishable from standard Twin Bonanzas and Queen Airs by the landing gear doors and the more rectangular engine cowlings of the Excaliburs compared to the rounded cowlings of the originals.
The Excaliburs led to the first Swearingen design, the SA26 Merlin, which could be described as a pressurized Excalibur. The Merlin had modified Queen Air wings with redesigned fuel tanks, Queen Air horizontal tails, and Twin Bonanza landing gear. The Merlin's fuselage and vertical fin represented Swearingen's contribution to the overall design. The next step was turbine power, through the SA26-T Merlin IIA with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6s and the follow-on SA26-AT Merlin IIB with Garrett TPE331 turboprops. Next came the all-new SA226-T Merlin III with new wings, landing gear and cruciform horizontal tail mated to a slightly stretched version of the fuselage used on the Merlin II series. The design effort reached its logical conclusion with the Metro series of 19-seat airline aircraft, the first of which had its first flight on August 26, 1969. By this time the company was in financial difficulties and lacked the resources to proceed further, so the Metro did not enter production until Swearingen Aircraft was taken over by Fairchild in 1972. The company was then renamed the Swearingen Aviation Corporation with Ed Swearingen a 10% shareholder and chairman of the board of directors. A total of 1,053 Merlins and Metros were produced when production ended in 1998; 350 short-fuselage Merlins and 703 long-fuselage Merlins and Metros.
In 1971 Piper Aircraft entered into merger negotiations with Swearingen, but did not finalize the merger. In 1973 Ed Swearingen formed a new company and went back to modifying aircraft, developing a new version of the Lockheed Jetstar on behalf of the manufacturer and Garrett. The modifications entailed installing new Garrett TFE731 engines and aerodynamic improvements to the airframe, increasing the Jetstar's range from to with no increase in fuel capacity. The company then manufactured jet engine nacelles and other aircraft components as a subcontractor to various manufacturers including Cessna, Gates Learjet and Dassault. On May 1, 1982 Ed Swearingen resigned from Fairchild and exercised his right to reacquire the Swearingen business name. Fairchild changed the name of Swearingen Aviation to Fairchild Aircraft Corporation and Ed Swearingen's company then became the Swearingen Aircraft Corporation.