Just wondering...What is the "best" ---- fastest, most powerful, perhaps longest range, general aviation aircraft that can be flown by just one pilot. Is it the Meridian? King Air?thanks,Mark.

Well you see that's a very hard question to answer, Anything can be GA, GA is everything not military or for profit basically. Indeed a 747 or a surplus fighter jet could be GA. If you owned your own citation X you'd be one of the fastest, Global express longest range, although i believe 10 hours is your limit even in GA. in short sorry i don't. mark- insert your favoite quote from the movie Airplane -

of course that 747, GE and Citationjet are required by their certification to have a 2 man crew.I think you should look into aircraft like the Cessna 421 (1500nm range according to Jane's, 1700nm+ in FS with favourable winds).It was the longest reaching twin prop I could find when searching for one last year :-)When you get to turboprops, the Piper Cheyenne 400 has longer range, but might require a 2 man crew (as does the Beechcraft 2000 Starship 1).

Cheyannes are certified for single crew operations, though insurance regulations often dictate having a SIC onboard. Same with all KingAirs up through the 350. There are regulations about carrying passengers single pilot without an autopilot, but for general purposes, they can be flown with a one person crew. Incidently, there are single pilot type ratings available for at least one of the citations, but i'm not sure which one it is (or maybe it's all of them-- I don't remember if they're on the same type rating or not). Also, the Beech 1900 can be flown single pilot as well if the pilot has the special type rating. I've heard rumors that the Jetstream 31 can be, but I don't know if this is true or not.

The Raytheon Premier Jet, which is already in production, is certified for single pilot ops, along with some of the already mentioned Citations.The Raytheon Premier is also the target of a payware project. You can find more info at:www.eaglesoftdg.com-John

The Sino SJ-30 is certified for single pilot operation, and flys 2500nm at 49,000 feet and mach.78 (mach.82 high-speed cruise). Worth consideration.xiphanopoulous