Turbine Pilot

A stellar performer in the mid-size jet arena

If overall performance were the sole measure of an airplane's success, the Israel Aircraft Industries-built Astra would be sharing the limelight instead of shadowing other mid-size business jets. Impressive payload, range, and cruise numbers notwithstanding, the Astra has sold only modestly in the nine years since its introduction; 62 are in the hands of corporate customers worldwide.

The competition from the Cessna Citations VI and VII, Lear 60, and Raytheon Corporate Jets Hawker 800 and 1000 is formidable, but the Astra is a worthy opponent. Its elliptically shaped fuselage cross section is narrower than the oval fuselages of its competitors, but shape doesn't tell the whole story. The Astra's cabin is relatively constant in width from floor to ceiling. That makes for generous head-, shoulder-, and legroom for seated passengers, even when the seats are stowed against the side panels.

Overall, the Astra is a graceful design with an elegant double- swept wing and long, thin engine nacelles. The Garrett 3,700-pound-thrust TFE731-3A engines are mounted very far aft and high — 13 feet behind the rearmost cabin seats — which gives the fuselage a sleek, elongated look. Aesthetic opinions of the Astra do vary, though. Features that, to some, lessen the airplane's visual impact are the prominent two-piece cockpit windshield, tapered nose, and squared-off fuselage cross section.

Though it is a member of the IAI Westwind family tree, the Astra was certified in 1985 to the latest FAR Part 25 standards. It incorporates contemporary technology including an electronic cockpit, use of lightweight composite non-structural skins, and efficient aerodynamics.

The wing has conventional Fowler-type flaps and leading edge slats. The slats extend to 25 degrees automatically with flap deployment or below certain altitude/angle of attack/airspeed combinations. The slats, flaps, and wing design — 34-degree sweep inboard, 25 degrees outboard, and thin airfoil with a trailing cusp — enable the Astra to achieve the slowest VREF speeds and fastest MMO (0.855 Mach) in its class.

The low approach speeds, standard Goodyear antiskid braking system, and double tires at each gear leg contribute to good runway performance. At a takeoff weight of just under 19,000 pounds, the balanced field length for our departure from Wilmington, Delaware, was about 3,500 feet. Landing distance at that weight would be about 2,400 feet — a couple of hundred feet less using the Grumman target-type thrust reversers that come standard on the airplane.

Astra's demonstrator, N300AJ, weighed in at 13,668 pounds basic operating weight for our flight. Even though that's heavier than typical for an Astra because of installed options, it's still light for a mid-size jet and an important contributing factor to the Astra's generous payload/fuel/range potential. The Astra will hold 8,695 pounds of fuel divided among wing tanks and a fuselage tank located between the cabin bulkhead and baggage hold. Another 670 pounds total is available from two extended range tanks that simply plug into the back of the fuselage fuel cell.

With all tanks full, we could have loaded 617 pounds of passengers and bags onto 300AJ, taken off from Wilmington and headed east for a few moments until crossing the Atlantic shoreline, then turned back westbound and flown to the U.S. Pacific coast — sea to shining sea, nonstop. Maximum fuel range is about 2,700 nm with generous reserves.

At the other end of the payload-range scale, we could have put 2,332 pounds of people and bags in the cabin and baggage bay to reach the maximum zero fuel weight of 16,000 pounds and still taken off with the standard tanks (minus extended range tanks) 88 percent full, enough for a 2,000-nm flight.

The wing is milled from a solid aluminum billet. There is no main spar, just ribs and stringers that float inside the wing. The absence of a main spar means the wing has unusual flex — as much as 31 inches of amplitude. The day we flew, it was blustery and turbulent below 5,000 feet. Looking back from the cockpit window, I could see the wing working the washboard air, absorbing the jolts rather than transferring them to the cabin.

Before flying the airplane, I spent some time in FlightSafety International Corporation's Wilmington Learning Center flying the Astra full-motion, Phase III simulator. Charlie Fluharty, who, like many of the instructors at the center, is a former Lockheed C5 pilot retired from nearby Dover Air Force Base, was my coach for the afternoon. Among other things, we looked at the Astra's engine-out performance and controllability and its mild low-speed manners. The yaw damper is not a required dispatch item, and no artificial stall warning or recovery devices, such as stickshaker, -pusher or -puller are required on the Astra. An airframe rumble followed by pronounced buffeting is the wake-up call for an impending stall. Recovery is a simple matter of reducing angle of attack and applying power.

Two handling traits I noticed in the simulator and airplane were the hard pull required to unstick the nosewheel on takeoff rotation and a little difficulty on my part keeping the wings from gently rocking while hand flying. The last I put down to lack of experience in swept-wing jets and the feel of the airplane in roll. The ailerons are hydraulically boosted, and a spring is used to tension the yoke and provide roll force. But unlike a purely mechanical aileron linkage system, Astra roll forces do not change with airspeed.

Roll control isn't a problem for experienced Astra pilots, as was convincingly demonstrated the next morning. Astra Jet company pilots Don Majors and David Kay flew tight, unwavering formation on AOPA's Beech A36 Bonanza at 160 KIAS for the photos that accompany this article.

Later, I flew with Majors while Kay and AOPA Pilot photographer Mike Fizer assumed the identities of corporate big shots and rode in back. (Fizer was much impressed with the low ambient noise level in the cabin but complained about poor cabin service from the flight crew.)

The cockpit is logical, neat, and well organized, indicative of a recent clean-sheet-of-paper design. Engine and systems switches, audio panels, fuel system controls, and circuit breakers are grouped on a large overhead panel. The mix of electronic and mechanical displays on the instrument panel marks it as transitional — state of the art means almost every dial and gauge including engine instruments, avionics, and annunciators is presented electronically. The Astra's panel rises high in the windshield, but visibility in turns is good, thanks to a pair of overhead windows.

Engine start is a simple matter of supplying battery (or external) power and hitting a Start switch. The fuel controllers take care of fuel management in the start sequence.

Taxiing was easy with the tiller. The brakes are very effective and call for sensitive use of the pedals to achieve smooth stops.

Majors ran the takeoff numbers and came up with a V1 speed of 100 knots, rotation at 112 knots, and V2 of 121 knots. On the takeoff roll, the rudder becomes effective for steering at about 30 KIAS. The airplane blasted through V1 and rotation speeds while I hunted for the right pull force to raise the nose yet avoid overrotating. Initial climb rate was something on the order of 6,000 feet per minute but settled down to about 2,000 fpm on average when the airplane was configured for high-speed climb mode of 250 KIAS to 10,000 feet, then 275 KIAS through 29,000 feet and 0.72 Mach for the remainder of the climb. Normal climb is 240 KIAS until reaching the final climb speed of 0.67 Mach.

Air traffic control held us at Flight Level 240 long enough to let the airplane accelerate to a dash speed of 340 KIAS, 23 knots below VMO. Then it was on up to our clearance altitude of FL410. The climb rate had deteriorated to about 700 fpm as we approached level-off. The Astra is certified to 45,000 feet, but its a usable altitude only when the airplane is very light.

We accelerated to 0.80 Mach, high-speed cruise, and noted a fuel flow of 1,300 pounds per hour total. The Astra earns high marks from operators for its ability to achieve book performance figures. We flew southeast out of Wilmington, and in no time, a strong northwesterly wind had helped push us far offshore. Majors asked for and received a 180- degree turn and fast descent to a block altitude in the mid-teens where we could practice maneuvers.

With the throttles at idle and spoilers deployed, the Astra plummeted at 15,000 fpm. It can be hand-flown to 0.825 Mach, or 0.855 Mach on autopilot. Once at our block altitude, Majors talked me through stalls with the airplane clean and configured for landing, then level turns at VREF minus 10 knots and 20 knots. In each case, the airplane behaved rationally and gave plenty of advance notice of loss of lift.

We tracked the ILS inbound to Wilmington, and despite the gusty quartering crosswind conditions, it was easy to maintain course, glidepath, and VREF speed of 118 knots. Pitch changes are nominal with flap and slat deployment except when full flaps are selected. My touchdown was a little on the firm side thanks to an early flare, but I considered it acceptable given the wind. Trailing link main and nose gears soften the landings and dampen the pitching that occurs if the brakes are applied too heavily.

The $8,179,000 base price of the Astra buys a ready-for-service airplane including five-tube Collins EFIS 86 panel, a finished cabin interior, antiskid brakes and thrust reversers, and ice protection system. The Astra uses wing and horizontal leading edge pneumatic boots for ice removal.

All of the manufacturing, assembly, and finishing work on the Astra, including avionics, interior, and paint, is done in Israel. The fit and finish on the demonstrator appeared to be of the highest quality, which should be expected from a company that manufactures military and commercial aircraft for the world market.

All Astras beginning with serial number 42 are referred to as SPs because of changes made to the avionics and interior. The SP has 6-inch Collins EFIS displays (earlier versions had 5-inch-square tubes) and digital autopilot, plus redesigned sidewalls, seats, and lighting in the cabin.

The cabin has a dropped center aisle for near-stand-up headroom of 5 feet 9 inches and seating for six to nine passengers, depending on the configuration. The lavatory is an important selling point in today's business-jet market, and a real estate agent would say the Astra "shows well." Translation: It's nicely done. The lav stretches across the aft end of the cabin — the toilet flushes; the faucet dispenses hot and cold running water; it has storage compartments; a little skylight window floods the space with natural light; it has its own heat and air conditioning outlets and controls; and it's tastefully finished. What more can you ask from a 59-inch-wide, FL410, necessary room except perhaps a massaging shower?

The cabin is comfortable and well appointed with fold-out writing tables, lights, cup holders, storage, stereo and VCR, and galley. The 11 eye-level rectangular cabin windows admit lots of natural light and encourage sightseeing, especially because every window provides a nearly unobstructed view forward of the wing.

The contemporary nature of the Astra's design is revealed in many ways other than the wing, cockpit, and cabin. For example, it's easy to get to serviceable items on the airplane. Most of the remote avionics boxes are mounted in the nose, and all it takes to expose the entire cache is to undo a couple of latches and lift up the nose cowl, much like lifting the hood of a car to check fluids. If the single-point refueling system is inaccessible for any reason, gas can be gravity-fed through a single port on the top of the fuselage.

Early Astras suffered from ground steering problems due to an overly sensitive tiller and brakes, minor windshield delamination, and poor ventilation in the remote avionics bay in the nose. All of those squawks have been addressed with modifications. Other changes include recessed windshield wipers and main-landing-gear inboard doors that now almost completely retract after gear extension. This allows Astras to execute no-flaps takeoffs in hot/high conditions.

Whatever difficulties the Astra has had in the market have less to do with cabin width and aesthetics than early sales and support stumbles. Atlantic Aviation originally handled Astra sales and support for IAI, but when that relationship ended in 1987, IAI set up its own U.S. company, Astra Jet Corporation. Astra Jet now has a sales and technical support organization with a parts depot and 21 authorized Astra service centers worldwide. Astra Jet advertising focuses on product support issues.

The historically volatile political and military environment in the Middle East may play a part in Astra's acceptance as well, particularly among operators who are based in or fly to Arab countries. But any concerns about the manufacturer's staying power seem unfounded. IAI is a major military and civilian aerospace manufacturer and gives every indication it is in the business-jet field for the long haul. Last year, the company launched development of an even brighter star, a larger cabin, longer range version of the Astra to be called the Galaxy.