FAA Certifies Cirrus Jet’s Williams FJ33-5A Turbofan

Williams International’s new FJ33-5A turbofan engine on Monday was awarded its FAA Part 33 type certificate. The company used what it learned in development of the earlier FJ44-3AP and FJ44-4A powerplants to give the new FJ33-5A more than 2,000 pounds of thrust, improved fuel economy and a better than 6-to-1 thrust-to-weight ratio.

The FJ33-5A — selected to power the Cirrus Vision and the Flaris LAR1 — incorporates wide-sweep fans, health-monitoring fadec controls, low-emissions combustor technology and additional sensor suite redundancy to satisfy the unique needs of the single-engine jet market.

Williams’ FJ33-5A also incorporates durability improvements gleaned from more than 10 million hours of operation of the 5,000 in-service FJ44s and helps fill in the product line of engines covering the 1,000 to 3,800 pounds thrust regime.

All FJ33-5A owners are enrolled in the company’s Total Assurance Program (TAP Blue) that covers even unusual operational situations, such as engine damage caused by hail, birds, lightning or man-made objects accidentally ingested into the powerplant. While the cost to incorporate mandatory service bulletins has always been covered by TAP, even optional bulletins are now covered.