US aircraft manufacturer JetZero has closed a secured credit facility of up to $100 million to finance the continued development of the Z4 aircraft, construction of the Jet1 demonstrator and establishment of manufacturing and testing facilities in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The facility is led by Pinegrove Credit Partners, backed by Brookfield and HRTG Partners, alongside Silicon Valley Bank, now a division of First Citizens Bank. The proceeds will also be used to purchase production tooling, mature the underlying technology and provide working capital for the expansion of JetZero’s US operations.

Because the agreement is a credit facility of up to the stated amount, the announcement does not necessarily mean that JetZero has already drawn the full $100 million. The company did not disclose the interest rate, repayment period or schedule for drawing the funds, although it said the facility had been structured around the program’s development milestones.

The new debt financing follows the approximately $175 million raised by JetZero in its Series B investment round in January 2026. Alongside lead investor B Capital, the round included United Airlines Ventures, Northrop Grumman, 3M Ventures, RTX Ventures and other investors. At the time, JetZero said it had secured more than $1 billion through private investment, government funding, incentives and commercial commitments.

The Z4 is being developed around a blended wing body, or BWB, configuration. Unlike a conventional aircraft with a cylindrical fuselage and separate wings, a large part of the Z4’s structure would contribute to generating lift. This reduces aerodynamic drag, while its wide central section permits a different passenger cabin arrangement.

JetZero is designing the Z4 to carry approximately 250 passengers over distances of up to 5,000 nautical miles, or around 9,260 kilometres. The aircraft is intended to address the segment between the largest narrowbody and conventional widebody aircraft, which has been left without a direct modern successor following the end of Boeing 757 and 767 production.

The company claims that the Z4 could consume between 30 and 50 percent less fuel than comparable conventional aircraft. However, these figures remain development targets that have yet to be demonstrated through flight testing. The US Air Force, which is supporting the technology’s development for potential future transport and tanker aircraft, has previously stated that the BWB configuration could reduce aerodynamic drag by at least 30 percent. The US Department of Defense has allocated $235 million to the demonstrator program.

Before developing the production Z4, JetZero must prove the configuration’s viability using the full-size Jet1 demonstrator. The aircraft is being built in cooperation with Scaled Composites, a Northrop Grumman company, and was approximately 40 percent complete as of June 2026. Its first flight is currently scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2027.

Industrial infrastructure is simultaneously being prepared for potential series production. In June, JetZero broke ground on its first manufacturing and final assembly complex in Greensboro. Factory1 is expected to cover approximately 743,000 square metres on a site of more than 240 hectares, while the company expects to create more than 14,000 jobs over ten years. The first aircraft produced at the facility would be used for testing and certification.

The project has already attracted interest from several airlines. United Airlines has invested in JetZero and signed a conditional agreement providing a path to purchase up to 100 aircraft, with options for another 100. Any resulting order remains subject to the successful development of the demonstrator and the aircraft meeting United’s safety, operational and commercial requirements. Gulf Air has signed a letter of intent for an undisclosed number of aircraft, while Japan Airlines is contributing to the evaluation of the Z4’s operational, maintenance and design requirements.

JetZero plans to introduce the Z4 into commercial service in the early 2030s. Before that can happen, the program must complete demonstrator testing, finalise the production aircraft’s configuration, undergo an extensive certification process and establish manufacturing for an entirely new aircraft type. The new credit facility provides additional funding for those steps, but the program still faces the considerably more demanding and expensive transition from demonstrator to production passenger aircraft.