Aero-TV: JMB Builds On Its Short-Field, High-Speed Sportplane Lineup

Описание: The VL-3 Design is Now Offered With Up to 160 Horsepower

From the beginning, the JMB Aircraft VL-3 has targeted a specific European mission: efficient personal travel. However, rather than focusing purely on speed, the design prioritizes the flexibility needed to operate on the kinds of short, unimproved runways common across the Czech Republic and neighboring countries.

Early VL-3 variants paired the lightweight composite airframe with the 100-horsepower Rotax 912, achieving takeoff rolls of roughly 600 feet. This short-field performance was central to the aircraft’s original appeal.

“The 100 hp variant that made this aircraft revolutionary at the time, it was capable of taking off grass runways, concrete, dirt, doesn’t matter,” explained Lukas Bestajovsky, Regional Sales Manager at JMB Aircraft. “Essentially, the goal was to get the take-off roll as short as possible.”

As engine technology evolved, JMB progressively expanded the VL-3’s capabilities. The platform transitioned from the Rotax 912 to the turbocharged 915, and most recently to the 160-horsepower Rotax 916. In the 916 configuration, the VL-3 can achieve climb rates of approximately 2,000 to 2,500 feet per minute.

“Who would’ve known, these engines just fit that platform even better,” Bestajovsky continued. “So, now, you have a shorter takeoff roll, and you can still come into airstrips that are 800 feet long comfortably.”

Current VL-3 models equipped with the Rotax 916 carry a maximum takeoff weight of approximately 1,650 pounds and start around $357,000. The standard package includes a Garmin G3X avionics suite, radio, autopilot, ballistic parachute system, and fully finished paint and interior, with customization available in the form of additional avionics and cosmetic options.

Aero-TV is a production of the Internationally syndicated Aero-News Network. Seen worldwide by hundreds of thousands of aviators and aviation adherents, ANN's Aero-TV has produced well over 5000 aviation and feature programs, including over 2500 episodes of our daily aviation news program, AIRBORNE UNLIMITED, currently hosted by Holland Lee. Now in its third decade of operation, parent company Aero-News Network, has the most aggressive and intensive editorial profile of any aviation news organization and has published well over a half-million news and feature stories since its inception -- having pioneered the online 24/7 aviation new-media model that so many have emulated.

©2026 Aero-News Network, Inc., ALL Rights Reserved

FMI: www.jmbaircraft.com, www.aero-news.net