Epic Aircraft is gearing up for deliveries of its freshly certified, $3.85 million E1000 GX. The company has brought two examples of the latest iteration of its fast turboprop single to EAA AirVenture this week. The 333-knot GX features the Garmin G1000 NXi flight deck, Garmin GFC 700 automated flight control system, and Hartzell five-blade composite propeller. 

The two display aircraft will be delivered to customers to begin flight training next week, said Mike Schrader, Epic director of sales and marketing, and two more will be completed shortly. “This is the first year we have had a certified plane at Oshkosh,” he said. “I expect once we get this airplane out in front of more people, we are going to see a lot more orders coming in,” Schrader said, acknowledging plans to take the aircraft on a nationwide demonstration tour. 

Schrader said Epic plans to deliver one aircraft per month through the remainder of the year—for an anticipated total production run of 14 in 2021—and then accelerate deliveries to a rate of 23 per year in 2022.  The company anticipates it will raise the price of the aircraft next year but the exact figure has yet to be determined, he said.

Epic has been training instructor pilots and will add a Frasca flight simulator at its Bend, Oregon, headquarters by September. Schrader said he expects about half of its customers will require 50 hours of additional training with a mentor pilot. Epic currently has 280 employees. “We’re just knocking it out one day at a time, one airplane at a time,” he said.