Iowa State students and faculty, as well as the city of Ames, may benefit from the new VisionAire Vantage aircraft complex being built at the Ames Municipal Airport.

Ames leaders and ISU officials attended a special research flight demonstration for the new VisionAire Vantage aircraft at the airport on Saturday.

The demonstration was of a 1/6 scale remotely-piloted-research-vehicle that is an exact copy of the Vantage jet. The model plane made several passes and performed several difficult maneuvers for the crowd with ease.

The aircraft has a revolutionary design and will be the first single engined jet passenger plane to meet Federal Aviation Administration guidelines. It will also have an all-composite airframe and forward swept wings.

The aircraft was designed mainly by Tom Stark, who worked for McDonald-Douglas on several projects including the F-15 fighter, and Burt Rutan, president of Scaled Composites Inc., designer of the revolutionary Voyager aircraft that flew around the world.

VisionAire, based in Des Moines, recently chose Ames as the site of its new Vantage manufacturing plant and held a reception before the research flight.

Attending the reception and flight were, among others, Ames Mayor Larry Curtis and ISU Vice President of Business and Finance Warren Madden.

Madden said the Ames manufacturing site is of great benefit to Iowa State.

“It’s using some of the technology the university developed in a practical application,” said Madden. “It presents opportunities for both students and faculty.

“It’s good for both Iowa and Central Iowa. We’ve got a lot of people [at ISU] working on composite technologies,” he said.

James Rice Jr., founder of VisionAire, said he hopes for student involvement in the project.

“The wonderful opportunity for VisionAire is to access the the students in aerospace engineering and composite technology,” Rice said. “To grow this facility the plant will need both local and university employees.”

Rice said he hopes to create several research assistantships and other jobs for students.

Wallace Sanders, an Iowa State professor of civil and construction engineering who is a shareholder in VisionAire, said this project is good for everyone. He said the company’s desire to help further develop Ames has stimulated interest by local residents.

“It’s good for Ames and that’s part of the reason why people invested in VisionAire,” Sanders said.

Stark, who is President of VisionAire and Designer of the aircraft, said the new VisionAire manufacturing facility will be a multi-million dollar facility on the west end of the Ames Airport grounds. The facility is being designed by Fox Engineering and other local Ames businesses.

So far, VisionAire has sold 39 planes, each with $10,000 non-refundable deposits. Stark said he hopes to see a full-sized prototype by as early as Halloween.

“It’ll look like an airplane in 30 days,” Stark said, “but the rest of the components will take a few more months.”