SyberJet SJ30

SJ30-2
A Sino Swearingen SJ30-2 seen at the 2007 Dubai Airshow.
Role	Light business jet
National origin	United States of America
Manufacturer	SyberJet Aircraft
Designer	Edward J. Swearingen
First flight	13 February 1991 (SJ30-1) November 1996 (SJ30-2)
Number built	8
Unit cost	US$8,306,452 (2015)

The SyberJet SJ30 is an American business jet built by SyberJet Aircraft. The SJ30 has been under development since the late 1980s and has been the subject of investment and partnership with a number of companies.

Ed Swearingen announced a new design for a light twin business jet in October 1986, the SA-30 Fanjet. The SA-30 was to be a 6 to 8 person aircraft powered by two Williams FJ44 turbofans and with a highly swept wing of relatively small area. It was planned to be more efficient than contemporary business jets, and to sell for $2 million. In October 1988 an agreement was signed with Gulfstream Aerospace with the SA-30 to be manufactured and sold by Gulfstream as the Gulfstream Gulfjet. Gulfstream withdrew from the project in September 1989, causing Swearingen to get backing from the Jaffe Group of San Antonio, with the aircraft to be built in a factory next to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. This resulted in the aircraft again being redesignated as the SJ-30 (later "SJ30-1"). The first SJ-30 flew on 13 February 1991, and was demonstrated at the 1991 Paris Air Show, but development ground to a halt when withdrawal of financial support from the state of Delaware.

The SJ30 is in the "light" jet class, and has the fastest cruise speeds and longest range of any aircraft in that class. The aircraft can seat up to six passengers plus one pilot. A unique feature of this aircraft is that it maintains a 'sea level cabin' (zero cabin altitude) up to 41,000 ft (due to its 12 psi differential pressure) thereby reducing fatigue due to high cabin altitude on long journeys.

The program was rescued by Lockheed, who arranged a joint venture between Swearingen and Taiwanese investors as part of the offset agreement for Taiwan's purchase of the F-16 fighters. The Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation was set up, with the aircraft now to be built at Martinsburg, West Virginia.