Some aircraft projects need a second attempt. Erasam started work on the CFM Air Dardo years ago, then put it on hold. Now he says he has signed a formal collaboration agreement with CFM Air, and the project is back on.
The announcement comes only a few weeks after erasam’s Alpi Aviation Pioneer 400 reached the MSFS Marketplace. That was also a manufacturer-backed Italian aircraft, and the Dardo follows the same idea: a small Italian builder, an official partnership, and a developer who has spent years focusing on this corner of general aviation.
Working with the real aircraft
erasam announced the project on his Discord server and shared first previews of the 3D model, which is being built by 3D artist Gabriel3DArtist.
When a community member asked whether he has access to the real aircraft, erasam said he does. There’s a formal collaboration agreement with CFM Air and said he also knows the team personally, after having visited the CFM Air factory years ago.
The company behind the Dardo
CFM Air is not a name most simmers will know, and its history is unusual for a light-aircraft builder. It was founded in 2005 by partners Marco Martilla and Maurizio Cheli to develop a UAV commissioned by one of Europe’s largest aerospace companies. That remotely piloted aircraft, the SKY-Y, first flew in 2007.
Maurizio Cheli is a former Eurofighter test pilot and an Italian astronaut who flew on the Space Shuttle. CFM Air says that in 2009 it helped build the SKY SPARK, an all-electric aircraft, and on June 12, 2009, Cheli flew it to a world record for maximum speed.
The Dardo grew out of this aerospace background, with the airframe built entirely from carbon fiber, laminated and assembled in-house. CFM Air states that structural tests were carried out up to +10G and -5G, and that ground vibration testing was done with the Politecnico di Torino under ENAC supervision. The factory is in Ciriè, near Turin.
What the real aircraft offers
CFM Air presents the Dardo as a comfort-focused tourer. The manufacturer highlights titanium parts in the flight controls, a 1.30 m wide cabin with dual throttle controls so the pilot can fly right-handed from either seat, and a cabin height of 1.02 m, which apparently is the tallest in its category. The company also points to leather seats with electric fore-aft and vertical adjustment, and air/oil shock-absorbing landing gear tested to CS-23 standards for semi-prepared strips.
Published specs on CFM Air’s website include:
- Wingspan: 8.40 m (about 27.6 ft)
- Length: 7.40 m (about 24.3 ft)
- MTOW: 600 kg (about 1,323 lb)
- Fuel capacity: 95 liters (about 25 US gal)
- Engine options listed: Rotax 914 Turbo (115 hp) and Rotax 915 Turbo (141 hp)
- VNE: 340 km/h (about 184 kt)
- Cruise at 75%: 250 km/h with the 914 and 275 km/h with the 915 (about 135 and 148 kt)
As for the engine, erasam says new-production Dardos use the more powerful Rotax 916iS, and he will model that engine instead. That gives the sim version a more modern fuel-injected powerplant than the one in the aircraft’s original documentation.
erasam says the Dardo will have a glass cockpit: two Garmin G3X Touch displays, a GTN 750, and a GMC 307 autopilot mode controller.
erasam’s catalog has grown steadily. It started with a freeware Tecnam P92 Echo, then expanded through a long Tecnam partnership with AeroSachs, including the P2008 JC and the P-Mentor. AeroSachs will also be publishing the Dardo. More recently, his work with OBY1 has produced the EuroFly Twinfox and the Pioneer 400.
