Trevor Milton, the pardoned founder and former CEO of the now-bankrupt EV and hydrogen startup Nikola, said on Friday that SyberJet Aircraft, the light jet manufacturer he has led since October, had set an unofficial east-to-west transcontinental speed record in its weight class.
SyberJet announced that its SJ30-2 completed a nonstop flight from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Diego on August 18, averaging 505.3 mph over approximately four hours and seven minutes.
The company claims the flight broke a 13-year-old record in the C-1f aircraft weight class — landplanes weighing between 6,000 and 9,000 kilograms — previously held by an Embraer Phenom 300 at 339.4 mph, set in 2013.
That would represent a 48.9% improvement over the prior mark, according to SyberJet.
The record remains “unofficial.”
SyberJet said it is awaiting certification from the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), a process the company estimates will take approximately 90 days.
The graphic Milton posted attributes the pending ratification to “PAA/FAI.” The body that sanctions record attempts in the United States for onward FAI ratification is the NAA.
On a 90-day timeline, ratification would fall around late November — after the October convention at which SyberJet plans to present an early-owner incentive programme for the SJ36.
Milton Was Aboard the Flight
Pilot Gordon “Gordy” Bryan flew the SJ30-2 on the record attempt, with Milton aboard as a passenger.
In a LinkedIn post shortly after the announcement, Milton wrote that SyberJet had not just beaten the record but “smashed it.”
Milton’s post did not carry the “unofficial” qualifier that appears on the graphic beneath it.
The SJ30-2 used for the flight will be displayed at NBAA-BACE 2026 at Henderson Executive Airport in Las Vegas, in space AC-03.
SyberJet also plans to debut its under-development SJ36 model during a “SyberJet World” event held in conjunction with the convention.
The SJ30-2 serves as the platform for the SJ36.
From Electric Trucks to Jets
Milton joined the investment group that acquired SyberJet in 2024 and was named CEO in October 2025, just weeks after the SEC dropped its fraud case against him with prejudice, following a presidential pardon from Donald Trump in March of that year.
Accounts of when the acquisition closed differ.
AVweb reported the investment group purchased the company in 2024; the Wall Street Journal placed the purchase in late 2025; PitchBook records an acquisition dated March 18, 2026.
The Nikola founder had been convicted on October 14, 2022, of one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud over allegations that he deceived investors about the company’s technological capabilities. He was acquitted on a second securities fraud count.
At Milton’s trial, prosecutors said a company video of a prototype truck appearing to be driven down a desert highway was actually a video of a nonfunctioning Nikola that had been rolled down a hill.
He was sentenced to four years in prison in December 2023 before the pardon eliminated that sentence. He never served any of it, having remained free on a $100 million bond pending appeal.
Prosecutors had asked the court on March 14, 2025, to order Milton to pay $660.8 million in restitution to Nikola shareholders. The pardon was granted 13 days later, and no restitution was ever ordered.
The Associated Press reported that Milton and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump re-election campaign fund less than a month before the November election, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Itemised filings show $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee in October 2024 and $750,000 to the Make America Healthy Again Alliance the month before.
The SEC’s subsequent decision to drop its civil enforcement case on September 11, 2025, was taken “in the exercise of its discretion,” according to the Commission’s litigation release.
The 2021 complaint had sought an officer-and-director bar among other remedies; none was ever imposed, and the dismissal with prejudice ended the Commission’s pursuit of one.
He stepped down as Nikola’s executive chairman in 2020 after Hindenburg Research published a report accusing him of repeatedly misrepresenting the company’s technology and progress.
The Phoenix-based electric and hydrogen truck maker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2025.
The Money He Still Owes
Milton has pursued a $69.7 million indemnification claim against Nikola for legal fees, which the company contested, arguing that Milton acted in a “grossly negligent, reckless” manner during his tenure.
Nikola had already expensed $36.6 million in attorneys’ fees on his behalf under that indemnification agreement across 2020, 2021 and 2022, according to the company’s filings.
The claim has since been subordinated by the Delaware bankruptcy court, effectively removing his prospect of recovery. Milton is appealing, arguing that the pardon erases the underlying misconduct on which the ruling relied.
Running the other way is an arbitration award Nikola won against him in 2023 over the SEC penalty. The Ninth Circuit affirmed that award, valued at $167 million, in February.
Creditors subpoenaed Milton in April 2025 to establish his financial position, stating he had yet to pay anything, and Nikola had separately sued him in Arizona accusing him of fraudulently transferring tens of millions of dollars in assets to frustrate collection.
Milton also sued CNBC and Hindenburg Research over their reporting on Nikola.
A New Jersey appellate panel dismissed the case with prejudice in December 2025 under the state’s anti-SLAPP statute, and he was ordered this July to pay $581,000 in the defendants’ legal fees.
A Rare and Storied Airframe
The SJ30 traces its origins to the late 1980s, when San Antonio aeronautical engineer Ed Swearingen designed a compact, high-performance business jet powered by two Williams FJ44 turbofan engines.
The design was ambitious for its class — a light jet capable of a top speed of Mach 0.83, a service ceiling of 49,000 feet, and a range of approximately 2,500 nautical miles.
The program endured a turbulent history. After its first flight in 1991, development stalled.
Taiwan-based Sino Swearingen rescued the project in the mid-1990s, stretching the airframe into the SJ30-2 variant.
The FAA certified the aircraft in October 2005, and the first production delivery came in November 2006.
Dubai-based investors acquired the company in 2008, renaming it Emivest Aerospace Corporation, but production ceased in November 2009.
A press release that September had said the new owners would provide up to $1 billion to design and develop a second aircraft model. By then the programme had consumed more than 12 years and over $700 million.
Emivest filed for bankruptcy in October 2010.
A year later, parts supplier Metalcraft Technologies of Cedar City, Utah, purchased the assets and relaunched the program as SyberJet Aircraft.
Only about eight SJ30 airframes were ever built, against an order book once reported above 300 units.
The aircraft already held three FAI/NAA-recognized city-pair speed records prior to this latest claim — routes from San Antonio to Goose Bay, Canada, San Antonio to London, and London to Dubai.
Milton is now seeking approximately $1 billion to develop the SJ36, the second aircraft model at the same company that was promised roughly the same sum for the same purpose in 2008.
