Adam A700 Very Light Jet Never Entered Service After Adam Aircraft's 2008 Collapse

The Adam A700 AdamJet was a very light jet designed to carry four to six passengers. It was developed alongside the Adam A500, a piston-engined aircraft with a similar layout, and the two designs shared about 80 percent of their parts. Two conforming prototypes were built, but the program ran out of time and money before certification.

Adam Aircraft Industries was founded in 1998 by George F. Work on the A700 began in 2003, and the prototype first flew on July 28, 2003. The company ceased operations on February 11, 2008, and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on February 19, 2008, before any production A700 was certified or delivered. In April 2008, AAI Acquisition Inc. bought the company out of bankruptcy and planned to continue certification. Flight testing was suspended in October 2008 during the financial crisis, and in April 2009 the company ceased operations and laid off its staff, ending development of the A700.

The A700 had a straight tapered wing, a central fuselage and twin booms mounted on the wing, carrying twin rudders linked by a high horizontal stabilizer. Unlike the A500, which has one engine at the front and one at the back, the A700 carried its two Williams FJ33-4A engines, rated at 1,350 lbf thrust each, on the sides of the rear fuselage, and the forward fuselage was lengthened by 4 feet to balance their weight.

Because the A700 never reached certification, the published figures are design and flight-test numbers: a length of 40 ft 9 in, a wingspan of 44 ft 0 in, a maximum speed of 332 kn (382 mph), a range of 1,400 nmi and a service ceiling of 41,000 ft. The A700 was never FAA certified, although the FAA did accept the certification data Adam Aircraft had recorded. No production A700s were delivered, so none exist on the new or used market or in charter fleets.