Next-generation business jet start-up Otto Aviation will locate the final assembly line for its Phantom 3500 aircraft at a new site at Jacksonville’s Cecil airport on the back of a package of incentives worth $515 million from the state of Florida.
“We spent over a year bidding that off. We did a ton of work: we looked at 50 locations in 12 different states,” says chief executive Paul Touw.
Otto intends to break ground on the facility next year but will “almost immediately” move into an existing 11,100sq m (120,000sq ft) building on the site, says Touw.
Assembly of the initial flight-test prototype will take place in Jacksonville next year, ahead of a maiden sortie planned for 2027.
Touw says the design of the Phantom 3500 is now largely “locked down”; a preliminary design review should be completed in the autumn.
Although most of the jet’s supply chain has been confirmed, Otto is still evaluating proposals for the wing and empennage from GKN Aerospace and Sonaca Group.
Other suppliers include Leonardo, which will make the carbonfibre fuselage at its site in Grottaglie in southern Italy, and engine maker Williams International, which is providing twin FJ44 powerplants.
Long lead items for the aircraft have already been ordered, says Touw.
Designed around an ultra-low-drag airframe capitalising on the benefits of laminar flow, Otto says the super-midsize Phantom 3500 will have fuel burn that is at least 50% lower than its rivals.
Otto believes it can sell 1,600 aircraft over the 2030-2040 period with around one-third of that total “already spoken for”.
