Very light jet

A very light jet, entry-level jet or personal jet, previously known as a microjet, is a category of small jet aircraft approved for single-pilot operation, seating 4-8 people, with a maximum take-off weight of under 10,000 pounds (4,540 kg). They are lighter than what is commonly termed business jets and are designed to be flown by single pilot owners.

History

After a flurry of interest in the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) and air taxi markets in the early 2000s, the VLJ sector underwent significant expansion. Several new designs were produced, such as the Embraer Phenom 100, the Cessna Citation Mustang, and the Eclipse 500. However, following the late 2000s recession the air taxi market underperformed expectations, and both Eclipse Aviation and air taxi firm DayJet collapsed. In December 2010, AvWeb's Paul Bertorelli explained that the term very light jet has lost favor in the aviation industry, "personal jet is the description du jour. You don't hear the term VLJ—very light jet--much anymore and some people in the industry tell me they think it's because that term was too tightly coupled to Eclipse, a failure that the remaining players want to, understandably, distance themselves from."

Flare gun

A flare gun is a firearm that launches flares. It is typically used for signalling, as distress signalling, for people at sea or from the ground to aircraft. It is not designed to function as a weapon.

Types

The most common type of flare gun is a Very (sometimes spelled Verey), which was named after Edward Wilson Very (1847–1910), an American naval officer who developed and popularized a single-shot breech-loading snub-nosed pistol that fired flares (Very flares). They have a single action trigger mechanism, hammer action, center fire pin. Modern varieties are frequently made out of brightly colored, durable plastic.

The older type of Very pistol, typical of the type used in the Second World War, are of one inch bore (26.5mm). These are still available and more recent longer barrel models can also fire parachute flares. Many newer models fire smaller 12-gauge flares. In countries where possession of firearms is strictly controlled, such as the United Kingdom, the use of Very pistols as emergency equipment on boats is less common than, for example, the United States. In such locations, distress flares are more commonly fired from single-shot tube devices which are then disposed of after use. These devices are fired by twisting or striking a pad on one end, but the contents are otherwise similar to a round from a flare gun, although the flares themselves are much larger and can burn brighter for longer. Another gun control-heavy country, Russian Federation, has a special tube-shaped flare launching device called a "Hunter's Signal" (Сигнал Охотника), which is reusable but is deliberately designed in a way to avoid resemblance to a gun.