BUSINESS MEMO: TEST FLIGHT OF THE VANTAGE

The Vantage had its first test flight recently.

America's newest corporate jet, flown by test pilot Doug Shane, vice president of Scaled Composites Inc. (SCI), the company that will manufacture the plane's components, took the Vantage to 10,000 feet over the Mojave Desert in California.

The plane, which will be produced by Chesterfield-based VisionAire Corp., will now start full-scale flight testings.

The Vantage, a six-passenger jet, is designed to fly at 41,000 feet, at more than 400 miles per hour.

VisionAire said it has 50 orders for the plane, which will sell at $1.65 million, about half the price of most small corporate jets.

SCI will make the plane's components in Montrose, Colo., and VisionAire will assemble the plant at a new facility to be constructed at Ames, Iowa.

Cape Girardeau and Ames were finalists for the VisionAire manufacturing facility, but Ames was selected for the assembly plant in August 1995. The Ames facility will employ 150 workers.