Many X-Plane pilots will be familiar with the Aerobask team which has brought a range of quality general aviation and bizjet products to that platform. In this review, we fly their Very Light Jet – the Epic Victory for X-Plane 12.
Epic Aircraft is an aircraft manufacturer in Bend, Oregon USA and where long-time readers of PC Pilot may also recognise as the home of former long-term PC Pilot contributor, Tony Radmilovich. Perhaps quite ambitiously, Epic’s first project was a 4/5 seat single engine Very Light Jet (VLJ) dubbed the Victory. While pilots spoke highly of the aircraft’s handling, poor sales resulted in Epic declaring bankruptcy just two years later. You can’t keep a good person (or aircraft) down for too long and under new owners, Epic remerged to produce the E1000 high-performance, six-place, single-engined turboprop aircraft which is still in production today.
While we now view VLJs in their own market niche, back in the early 21st century it was quite radical and with Epic aiming to produce a jet aircraft that would sell for under $1 million – perhaps it was too much for operators of the era to fully appreciate the benefits. However, today, VLJs such as the HondaJet, Cirrus Vision and Eclipse 550 are common sights…
