In November 2015, aviation startup Cobalt began taking preorders for its Co50 Valkyrie, a fighter jet-inspired private aircraft that has quickly gone on to become a must-have.
On Tuesday, Cobalt revealed that the single-engine propeller aircraft managed to secure more than 80 preorders for the aircraft in the initial 90 days. The fully-certified model, the Co50 Valkyrie, is priced at $699,000 each, compared to the $595,000 price for the experimental model Valkyrie-X. Buyers need to make a $15,000 deposit to secure the Co50 Valkyrie.
According to the company's CEO David Loury, Cobalt managed to get 29 preorders for the Co50 Valkyrie in the initial 24 hours. Nearly 75 percent of the orders for the Co50 Valkyrie have been placed by customers in the United States, a majority of whom are CEOs of small businesses.
As people scramble to secure what is being touted as the coolest private aircraft around, the question arises - is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ready for the Co50 Valkyrie?
Despite raking in bookings worth $50 million, the future of the Co50 Valkyrie remains circumspect as it is still awaiting regulatory approval.
The FAA has revealed that it is yet to receive any official application for certification from the company. According to the FAA's regulations, three years from the application date for a "14 CFR Part 23 certification" are allowed for its completion. The option to ask for an extension is available. Cobalt has not commented on the situation.
"To date, we have not received a formal application to certificate the Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie," says the FAA.
Cobalt is now in a sticky situation as even though it has completed 85 to 90 percent of its testing required for the FAA's approval - as revealed by Loury - the Airworthiness Certificate needed for the aircraft to operate in the U.S. airspace has not been attained. Therefore, owing to this hurdle, Cobalt is unable to offer consumers a confirmed delivery date, so whether it will be able to deliver on its promise is a big question mark.
Cobalt has halted the preorder process for the four-plus-one-seater plane, which the company claims will be the fastest single-engine propeller airplane in its class. While Cobalt says this is so that the company can "focus primarily on the production of all current preorders," one can deduce that the lack of FAA certification could be the propelling factor for this decision.
