SyberJet's Trevor Milton wants your trust. Should you give it?

Trevor Milton, CEO of SyberJet, welcomed NBAA-BACE 2026 with a bang. An event held on Oct. 19 at Henderson Executive Airport revealed its SJ36 light jet mockup for the first time. Hundreds were in attendance to take in the dramatic light show and reveal. It was a display that would have made Steve Jobs or Elon Musk proud. And maybe that's fitting as Trevor Milton is no ordinary CEO.Milton cut his teeth as founder of hydrogen truck maker Nikola, one of the biggest SPAC failures of the 2020s. Its bankruptcy in February 2025 was preceded by an infamous report by short seller Hindenburg Research in September 2020, with allegations of wholesale fraud by Milton, symbolized by a video of an unpowered Nikola One truck rolling down a hill.Fair shake or pile-on? The video, the jury and the pardonHindenburg accomplished what it set out to do: take down a company's market cap that it argued was overvalued, and make a fortune in doing so. But what did the allegations prove? The marketing video is maybe the single most damning piece of evidence leveled against Nikola and Milton, at least in the public eye. A viral moment that stuck. The truck was a ‘pusher,' specifically what Milton said it was not during the reveal event. However, that video was filmed years earlier for a third-party promotional video, during the truck's research and development phase and while the company was still private. That out-of-context moment was lost in the frenzy to find a villain. The more the stock dropped, the more someone was needed to take the fall. And an outspoken, brash CEO that just minted paper billions on the SPAC craze was target number one. Milton was charged and convicted by a federal jury in October 2022 on three of four counts of fraud. He filed an appeal but was subsequently pardoned by President Trump in March 2025. Prosecutors had asked for $660.8 million in restitution for Nikola shareholders 13 days before the pardon, and the SEC dropped its civil case that September."I went through about six years of the worst thing a human can imagine going through. I had a decision to make," Milton said. "Either I'm going to end up dead from depression, or I'm going to fight this back and find something so inspiring that it brings me back to life. That's what aviation did."Milton leaned in hard after stepping down as executive chairman of Nikola. "I ended up logging around 2,000 hours of flight time, probably 70% of that IMC, instrument flying, just as an outlet. I needed something that would push me, build my mind, keep me fresh and excited."The SJ30 keeps getting resurrected. What has changed?That inspiration led him to SyberJet, another failed OEM, albeit for vastly different reasons. SyberJet was the latest iteration of Ed Swearingen's companies. Swearingen, a largely self-taught mechanic and engineer from San Antonio, Texas, is known as one of general aviation's most prolific airplane designers. He adapted Bill Lear's F-5 autopilot for piston aircraft and founded Swearingen Aviation in 1958, with clients including Piper, Bell Helicopter, Lycoming, and Pratt andamp; Whitney. Fairchild acquired a majority stake in 1972. In 1986, he formed Swearingen Engineering and Technology to develop and market the SJ30 (originally the SA30 Gulfjet, which he designed). The SJ30 first flew in 1991. Taiwanese-backed investors bought the company and renamed it Sino Swearingen in 1995, and the jet earned FAA certification in 2005. Only about ten were built. The journey only got more complicated from there: the entity changed hands in 2008, acquired by a Dubai-led ownership group and renamed Emivest Aerospace. However, Emivest went bankrupt in 2010, and its assets were bought by Utah-based Metalcraft Technologies in 2011, which renamed the OEM SyberJet. Trevor Milton, along with an investor group, stepped in to acquire the entity in 2024. He was named CEO after the pardon in 2025. "It was built by Ed Swearingen, a guy who built 30 aircraft programs. Without him none of this would be possible. I saw this technology and thought, this thing has so much potential, but it has the wrong people."Where exaggeration ends and deceit beginsMilton has a vision, forged as the founder of an OEM startup, a hybrid of technology and physical engineering. The transition from novel truck maker, competing against entrenched OEMs, to airframe maker with similar challenges, carries a lot of parallels. And packaged with his experience, Milton is also a showman. He knows how to tell a story as a natural-born marketer. But can he be trusted? Where is the line drawn between exaggeration, fibs and outright deceit?Milton was specifically convicted of one count of securities fraud and two of wire fraud. Yet some jurors interviewed by the Wall Street Journal said that they did not think he acted with criminal intent (even though intent is a required element for a conviction). Prosecutors alleged false and misleading claims of hydrogen production and cost, its battery and inverter manufacturing capabilities, the number of binding reservations, and that he described the Badger pickup as built "from the ground up" when its prototypes were built from Ford F-150 donor vehicles.These are the types of claims that will get a CEO into hot water, but normally of the financial, not the incarceration kind. Milton may not have been as lucky but is in good company: Elon Musk famously tweeted "funding secured" in 2018. That resulted in a $20M fine for him, plus another $20M for Tesla, and he gave up the Tesla chairmanship for three years. From 2018 to 2022, Carl Icahn pledged up to 65% of his company's units as collateral for as much as $5.1 billion in personal margin loans without adequate disclosure, the SEC found. In 2024, he paid a $500K fine, with his company getting tagged for $1.5M, neither admitting nor denying wrongdoing. Larry Ellison of Oracle was on the receiving end of a shareholder suit in 2001 that alleged he sold nearly $900M of Oracle stock weeks before a devastating earnings report. He settled in 2005 by funding $100M in charitable donations, plus $22M in plaintiffs' legal fees.These CEOs are all polarizing figures. Milton is no exception. But then there is the truck video. The viral moment silently heard around the world. And ironically, the least of his sins. If a light jet buyer can move past the social media noise, there are some compelling attributes that SyberJet has in store for its upcoming SJ34 and SJ36 jets, starting with the SyberVision flight deck.A flight deck built from the ground upOne would expect a partner announcement with one of the usual suspects, Garmin, Collins, or maybe Honeywell. But Milton's evaluation of the products currently available didn't fit his vision of the future. "You couldn't remote control, you couldn't update over the air, you couldn't climate control, you couldn't monitor the aircraft, you couldn't control the certification program. None of it, if you went with Garmin. But we did actually try to go to Garmin. We went to them, and they told me to pound sand. They said, ‘sorry, we're not interested'. I said, ‘thank you, I'm glad you told me that'. It was the greatest thing they ever did, because they woke a monster." GlobalAir.com reached out to Garmin but it did not respond to a request for comment.The needs, wants and desires when developing a product are one thing — everyone has a wish-list — but a strategy and process to achieve your goals is another, especially when competing with legacy OEMs and suppliers. "The key is a small team. These guys have thousands of employees and they can't get out of their own way … We're probably 300 people total, including our avionics program: 100 on avionics and 200 on the jet. Most of these companies have 10,000 on a program. We're 300, and the reason is that every person in here knows what everyone else is doing. Our electronics guys are working on the software, our software guys are working on hardware. Everyone is connected. There are no more silos in our company. I refuse to have them. It's a flat structure. Every employee, including me, is on one level."What SyberJet is sellingSo, what's available today? The SJ36 mockup at NBAA-BACE showcased its interior and SyberVision flight deck. It is designed as a single-pilot, nine-seat light jet projected to cruise at up to Mach 0.88, with range of roughly 3,000 nautical miles, a 49,000-foot ceiling and a sea-level cabin up to 41,000 feet (same as the existing SJ30's cabin pressure performance). SyberJet is targeting first deliveries in 2032 at a launch price of $14 million, rising to $16 million after the first 250 customers. The SJ34, which succeeds the certified SJ30-2, carries a pilot and six passengers, reaches up to Mach 0.83 with range up to 2,500 nautical miles, and adds larger Williams FJ44 engines, the SJ36 interior and SyberVision. Deliveries are targeted for 2029 at $10 million, rising to $12 million. All figures are SyberJet projections, subject to development and certification.SyberVision is designed in-house and boasts a Silicon Valley inspired, touchscreen look and feel (with backup knobs and buttons). The panel features six 4K touchscreens, over-the-air updates, remote cabin control and SyberPilot, an AI assistant that Aviation Week reports is intended to eventually earn FAA certification as an autonomous pilot. A feature that's bigger than a footnote with its potential impact on all flight decks and a co-pilot's future. SyberJet's internal goal is flight testing within 12 months.SyberJet opened reservations at NBAA-BACE and has not published a reservation count or deposit amount. That's a touchy area that previously got Milton into trouble. But it did announce letters of intent for more than 50 SJ36s, AIN reported, which are a step short of firm orders. The first 250 customers join Passage One, which bundles 1,000 hours or five years of tip-to-tail maintenance coverage, engine maintenance and fuel, plus two type-rating training slots. Regarding reservation deposits, Milton said, "It sits in an escrow account, gains interest, and we don't touch it until they have a serial number."One reservation holder says that bundle is what sold him. Ryan Gardner, a Utah business owner and helicopter pilot who has reserved two jets, is the previous owner of a Phenom 300. He cited prolonged AOG times and maintenance costs as part of his decision to sell. "Our plane happened to be down for months at a time waiting on a part." Domestically manufactured parts along with Passage One's five-year warranty and fuel coverage were a major selling point. "There's not going to be expenses for the first couple of years."Performance claims on future aircraft are one thing, but Milton has a certified airframe at his disposal, and he's taken full advantage of it. In August an SJ30-2 flew Jacksonville to San Diego in about 4 hours and 7 minutes at an average of 505.3 mph, an unofficial record. SyberJet says that beats the 339.4 mph light jet east-to-west record set by an Embraer Phenom 300 in 2013 by about 48.9%. The record is pending certification by the National Aeronautic Association and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, which SyberJet expected in about 90 days.Beyond the record books, Gardner happens to be one of a select few to experience a SyberJet in flight. At Milton's invitation, he flew an SJ30 from Utah to Mesa, Arizona, after the unveiling, a trip he put at about an hour and 10 minutes. "I had a really good flight. It was super comfortable ... Super quiet." Asked about Milton's past, Gardner responded "We heard all the stories. And when we got down to Arizona, they showed us a running truck, a Nikola truck. I'm like, wow, that's crazy. They're saying that it never ran, but here it is running … There are a lot of people who say things, even when I posted [to his social media account from the launch event] about the SyberJet. So, I wanted to experience it firsthand. I wanted a ride in a SyberJet, and I did. It kind of resolved all the issues for us. And then we put our down payment down on two jets."What buyers should watchThe clock is running. Ratification of the speed record is expected in late November and a litmus test on Milton's claims versus reality. SyberVision flight testing is targeted to begin within 12 months. It's a bold bet to develop a flight deck and airframe while keeping ambitious timelines for both models. Problems here will have a knock-on effect. Depositors remain shielded by an escrow account with all eyes on the milestones. But is that enough? Asked how he plans to earn buyers' trust, Milton said:"People who follow my journey either love me or hate me. Most of the ones who hate me eventually come around to respect me and like me, not all of them, but most. This is a place where I have to prove myself, and I'm not going to get anything from anybody until we prove ourselves. But I did just break the world speed record ... I was one of the two pilots on board, and you can't fake a world speed record."