AASI's Gene Comfort has a bit of showman in him. As the executive vice president stood before a veiled aircraft at the NBAA show in Las Vegas the crowd waited to see two things: the former astronaut Jim Lovell, and the new propjet. Comfort finally delivered both, but not before a round of introductions including CEO Dr. Carl Chen, the AASI sales staff and even the company's two test pilots.

Lovell is a director of the Long Beach, California AASI. Prior to the unveiling of the new aircraft, Lovell regaled the crowd around the AASI exhibit with stories of astronauts, space exploits, flying and John Glenn. The AASI director had been in a press conference with Glenn just a few days before. Now he was helping to show off the new JetCruzer. Minutes after the unveiling Lovell would sign 100 copies of his bestselling book, "Lost Moon" for the crowd. Lovell's book details the ill-fated flight of Apollo 13 on which the astronaut served as commander.

The unique 6-place JetCruzer is powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-66A rated at 1572 ESHP, giving it a cruise speed of 360 mph and a rate of climb of 3,000 feet per minute. Priced at less than $1.4 million the 30 foot long canard design aircraft is faintly reminiscent of the Beech Starship. The JetCruzer has an all-composite fuselage with aluminum wings. The interior of the aircraft was created by DesignWorks, a subsidiary of BMW.

AASI states that they have orders for 150 of the aircraft worth a total of $152 million equating to a two-year backlog. First deliveries are scheduled for late this year.