Belmont 65 Skybus

The Belmont 65 Skybus is a series of single-engine,,  designed by Tiperyn firm Belmont Airworks and Kaya firm KIA and introduced in 2007. The Belmont 65 was a development of the earlier Belmont 55 series, incorporating modern aerospace technologies into the platform, including engines and a primarily  construction.

The 54 seat Skybus was designed primarily as a commuter aircraft to ferry passengers between small municipal airports domestically and, in the case of Tiperyn, to smaller airports in Western Artemia. Its engine placement is unique, being the only single-engine commercial jet airliner produced by a Tiperyn company. Its single turbofan engine is mounted in the rear fuselage and feeds air from an embedded in the. The design was inspired by earlier designs, with the additional two turbofans present on the Belmont 45 being dropped in Belmont 55 due to increased performance in newer turbofans.

The Belmont 65 made its maiden flight on 15 January 2006 and launched with Tiperyn regional airline Jet Black on 8 April 2007. The shortened Belmont 65LR designed for longer ranges connecting small airports made its maiden flight on 20 June 2009 and launched with Kaya Air Services (KAS) on 1 October 2010. It was estimated by Belmont Airworks and partner airlines that the Belmont 65 was 10% more fuel efficient than the Belmont 55 (also single engine) and 44% more fuel efficient than the Belmont 45 trijet.

The Belmont 65 platform is one of the most heavily subsidized civil aviation projects in Tiperyn history, due in part to being tied to an industrial cooperation agreement between the Tiperyn and Kaya governments. Although flown by airlines and private owners worldwide, Kaya and Tiperyn are the first and second largest customer countries respectively. However, as of 2018 it is, it is the only airliner with over 1,000 orders or deliveries that is not fielded by one of Tiperyn's military air services. The failure to gain government contracts has largely been attributed to the Belmont 65's use of a single turbofan engine. Meanwhile, the Belmont 45 trijet - which was introduced in 1987 - is remains in service as a light transport aircraft.

Current operators

 * Kaya
 * Tiperyn

Former operators

 * Gardarike

Accidents and incidents
The Belmont 65 Skybus has been involved in one accident that produced casualties. However, it has been involved in dozens of reportable incidents according to the Tiperyn Office of Aviation. The majority of these have been birdstrikes. Although none of these incidents have caused an engine shutdown, the aircraft's manual strongly recommends that a landing should be conducted as soon as possible even if there is no apparent effect to the engine due to the Belmont 65 being a single-engine aircraft. This has caused a disproportionate amount of reportable incidents caused by birdstrikes.


 * On 15 December 2014, a Gardic charter flight flying a Belmont 65 crashed in a remote forest in northern Gardarike. No survivors were reported among the 32 passengers and 4 crew. The flight was ferrying laborers from the Gardic capital to a natural gas field. Accident investigators concluded that a faulty weather radar and inadequate direction from air traffic control caused the aircraft to fly through a hail storm. Ingested hail damaged the aircraft's single turbofan, decreasing thrust output to approximately 55% of normal. This compounded with an electrical fault caused by errors in maintenance, leading to the freezing over of the aircraft's . The combination of decreased thrust and inaccurate air speed readings caused the aircraft to stall without enough altitude to recover. The incident lead to the grounding of the Belmont 65 fleet in Gardarike and eventually the banning of Belmont 65 operations over the nation after Belmont Airworks stated it would not produce a model with redundant engines.