Eclipse Aerospace In the News

AIN, by Matt Thurber

Matt Thurber takes the latest Eclipse 550 for a test flight and reports back on avionics, performance, and more.

"The Eclipse 550's flight deck represents the pinnacle of avionics integration for this VLJ, and the IS&S avionics system is now a mature product that keeps getting better."

Read the full pilot review at AIN Online.

Plane and Pilot Magazine, by John Hayes

Plane and Pilot magazine writer and pilot John Hayes takes the Eclipse 550 for a tour around the deserts around Tucson and reports back on an incredible flight.

"There's a new Eclipse jet in the sky, and it may just be the one everyone wanted in the first place. It's called the EA-550, from Eclipse Aerospace, and it might be hard to distinguish from the original EA-500, but make no mistake, it's a whole new airplane."

Read the complete pilot review at PlaneAndPilotMag.com.

AOPA, by Thomas Haines

The 550 moves Eclipse from curiosity to contender

The U.S. Army marketing slogan "Be all you can be" kept rolling around in my head as I learned more about the Eclipse 550. The flight from Charleston, South Carolina, would be my first in the new model, an upgrade from the Eclipse 500, which itself had several versions of varying capabilities during its short production run.

My previous experience, going back to the pre-certification models I flew and getting a type rating in the little jet in 2008, highlighted what the airplane wasn't at the time - all that it could be.

Read the Full Article at AOPA.org

Flying Magazine, by Pia Bergqvist

The first Eclipse 550 customer has left the Eclipse Aerospace factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as the manufacturer delivered the first modified version of the original very light jet, the Eclipse 500. The delivery was achieved less than two years after production restarted, but about six months later than the company had hoped when it achieved the full production certificate for the assembly facility almost exactly one year ago.

Read more at Flying Magazine

AIN Online, by Rob Finfrock

Eclipse Aerospace announced late last week that it received FAA approval to double the life limit on existing Eclipse 500s and new-build Eclipse 550s to 20,000 hours/20,000 cycles. Cary Winter, senior vice president of engineering for the Albuquerque, N.M.-based company, said the extension "validated the strength and superiority of" the friction stir welding process used to assemble the aircraft's fuselage and wings.

Read the complete article at AIN Online.

Barron's, by Matt Thurber

Save money by matching your machine to your mission.

Technology makes many things smaller and cheaper, and thankfully, private jets are no exception. Until 2006, when the new generation of very light jets like the Cessna Mustang and Eclipse 500 hit the market, and then, two years later, the Embraer Phenom 100, your only choices were supercramped light jets or putting up with the extra cost of flying larger models.

But now there are options. The vast majority of business aircraft seat six passengers in a cabin roughly the size of a large SUV and fly an average trip of less than 1,000 nautical miles, claims the National Business Aviation Association. That's frequently in planes costing about $10 million. Very light jets, in contrast, typically seat six to eight passengers, have a maximum range of 1,178 nautical miles, and roughly cost between $2 million and $4 million.

In other words, most business flights neatly fit the very light jet's mission; if owners need a larger jet for the occasional long-range flight, they can always charter. Says Eclipse Aerospace's CEO and chairman, Mason Holland: "I use the plane like an air limo myself."

Read the complete article HERE

P1, by Dave Calderwood

Eclipse's Incredible Comeback from Fallen Hero to Resurgent Star

This very informative article on Eclipse's re-entry into production comes to life with video interviews, photo galleries, and much more inside the P1 application for the iPad. Click HERE to download this issue of P1 and read about the Eclipse 550.

Plane and Pilot, by Bill Cox

The Eclipse 500 is back, and this time, they've done it right

The world looks different from 41,000 feet. Climb to nearly eight miles above the sea, and you'll note some dramatic changes compared to the view at lower altitudes. For one thing, the perpetual haze layer that plagues so much of the U.S. often becomes thicker and more opaque. If you look up rather than down, you'll see a dark-cobalt sky, not the solid black the astronauts report on their journey to orbit, but a deep navy blue.

You're virtually alone at this altitude. Many airliners can operate at FL410, but only after burning fuel load down for several hours. There are a number of corporate jets that can top 41,000 feet, but all are far more expensive than the Eclipse. Contrails are nearly always below you rather than above.

The Avio NG flat panel display before me suggests we're cruising at 340 knots at this high station, well above most other traffic. As if in confirmation, a twin-jet contrail crosses our path 4,000 feet below. In the distance, I can see the snow-white spine of the Sierra Nevada reaching up for us and falling five miles short. Today's ride is in Mason Holland's Total Eclipse demonstrator, a fully completed version of the Eclipse 500, the primogenitor of the very light jet. In truth, the Eclipse created the VLJ market, and today, there are something over 250 of the type in the sky.

View the complete article and Plane & Pilot's site HERE.

Aviation Week, by Fred George

Flight Global, by Flight Evening News Team

AIN, by Mark Huber

Eclipse Aerospace CEO Mason Holland said the company is currently building two refurbished Total Eclipse jets a month and still hopes to eventually start up a new aircraft production line. "We've got pretty good throughput now," he said, adding that the company's top priority is supporting the 260 aircraft that came off the production line at the original Eclipse Aviation before it cratered into bankruptcy in 2008. Holland credited the substantial minority investment Sikorsky made in the new Eclipse Aerospace last year in enabling it to better serve customer needs ....

Full article can be read at AIN's site HERE.

Flight Global, by Michael Gerzanics

With the Total Eclipse package, the Eclipse 500 is finally what was promised at launch

With a new fully integrated avionics suite and the name Sikorsky on its masthead (as a minority owner), Eclipse Aerospace's Eclipse 500 very light jet is deserving of one last, long look.

On 28 April, I travelled to New Mexico to sample one of the latest aircraft to leave the former factory in Albuquerque - a converted DayJet air taxi - to evaluate the type in its most recent, and perhaps, final form.

That the Eclipse 500 remains available today despite its growing pains is testament to the value-and-fun proposition. Minority buy-in by Sikorsky in 2010 - to aid with both parts distribution and the eventual restart of the production line when and if economic conditions allow - only boosts the company's chances of being bigger and stronger for the type's tenth anniversary in 2016.

Conceived in the late 1990s and certificated in 2006, the Eclipse 500 promised to turn the status quo on its head. For less than $1 million, about the price of a Beechcraft Baron, the masses could buy a six-place twinjet that could fly four occupants more than 1,850km (1,000nm) in pressurised comfort. The original company (Eclipse Aviation) touted the type as "flying in the face of convention", but the development process was far from a breeze. Switching engine supplier from Williams International to Pratt & Whitney caused a two-year delay. The original Avidyne-sourced glass cockpit was binned in favour of an internally sourced "Avio" one.

Read the full article HERE.

Flying Magazine, by Robert Goyer

We get to fly the most controversial airplane in GA history. In the process we learn a lot about the company that was there to pick up the pieces.

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AOPA Turbine Pilot, by Thomas B. Haines

The VLJ Company Implements Mods, Mends Relationships

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Aviation Week, by Robert Hewson

Eclipse Aerospace Inc. will make the AvioNG fully-integrated flight management system (FMS) the standard for all new production Total Eclipse very light jets. Although the company still won't name a date for the restart of manufacturing, it says the aircraft and the cockpit are fully finished, no-risk designs, just waiting for a go-ahead. The new AvioNG standard will be available for retrofit to all of the 260 Eclipse 500 aircraft previously delivered, replacing the current "1.7 standard" FMS.

Developed by Innovative Solutions & Support Inc. (IS&S) the AvioNG provides coupled localizer performance with vertical guiding (LPV) approach, airways/Victor route navigation, required navigational performance (RNP) (auto/manual), holding patterns and procedure turns, parallel offsets, storage for ninety-nine flight plans, user-defined waypoints, nearest airports and navigation aids, optical bypass switch (OBS) mode, present and on-route information.

Read the full article HERE.