Eclipse Aerospace powered up the first production Eclipse 550 very light jet at its Albuquerque, N.M. facility, the company announced yesterday. An Eclipse spokesperson told AIN the process entailed “a normal power on of both [Pratt & Whitney PW610F turbofans] and all aircraft systems.”
Eclipse
November 4, 2012 - 12:35am
This formation of 27 Eclipse light jets was part of a larger group that descended on Branson Airport in Missouri for the Eclipse Owners Club Fall Fly-In last month. Forty-three of the twinjets met up in what was one of the largest gatherings of the same model private jet ever to land on a field at one time. Eclipse Aviation built 261 of the EA500s before it went bankrupt in 2008. Eclipse Aerospace, which acquired the company’s assets, announced it has restarted production with deliveries of the updated Eclipse 550 expected next year.
October 31, 2012 - 4:00pm
PPG Aerospace won a contract to supply cockpit windows for the new Eclipse 550, as well as improved-design windshield spares and side-cockpit window spares to Eclipse Aerospace for the existing Eclipse 500 fleet. The lighter-weight glass-faced acrylic windshields for both aircraft will be heated, meet requirements to resist strike by a two-pound bird at 200 knots and have an anti-static coating. The side-cockpit windows will be acrylic. PPG will start cockpit window deliveries to Eclipse in the middle of next year to coincide with deliveries of the first Eclipse 550s.
October 30, 2012 - 9:30am
It’s been a bit more than three years since Eclipse Aerospace was awarded the assets of bankrupt Eclipse Aviation in August 2009, not quite enough time, perhaps, to fully separate conversations about the former from the mixed record of its predecessor, but Mason Holland, CEO of Eclipse Aerospace, told AIN the company is weary of “Phoenix rising from the ashes” stories and declared it has made considerable progress updating a
July 1, 2012 - 5:40am
Sales professionals from more than 30 countries who attended the first International Eclipse Dealer and Sales Conference on May 31 may have noticed a not-so-subtle change to the buildings that house Eclipse Aerospace at the Albuquerque, N.M. International Sunport. Before the meeting, Eclipse CEO Mason Holland arranged for bucket loads of blue paint to be delivered to the company’s facilities, and painters quickly erased the bright orange that had been the hallmark of the old Eclipse Aviation and dabbed on the blue that is the color of Eclipse Aerospace.
April 26, 2012 - 4:13pm
Charleston, S.C.-based Eclipse Aerospace announced yesterday that it has received a production certificate from the FAA, green-lighting production of the Eclipse 550 very light twinjet. The approval was granted after the agency determined that the company’s manufacturing processes and quality systems meet all federal regulations.
“Armed now with a fully certified aircraft, a certified production process and an established supply chain, Eclipse is well positioned to re-introduce the Eclipse Jet to new production,” said Cary Winter, the company’s senior vice president.
February 23, 2012 - 2:05pm
Eclipse Aerospace released a flight-planning and in-flight reference iPad app called Eclipse Quick Reference Application (QRA) yesterday. The app for the Eclipse 500 very light jet includes a weight-and-balance flight-planning tool, interactive flight checklists and performance planning tools. Eclipse QRA can also pull up digital copies of the aircraft flight manual and the aircraft maintenance manual, complete with updated downloads of temporary revisions and other customer communications.
November 3, 2011 - 2:05pm
Eclipse Aerospace announced at last month’s NBAA Convention that it is resuming new-build production of its iconic very light twinjet, newly dubbed the Eclipse 550. At the show, Eclipse began taking orders for the new jet, which sells for $2.695 million (2011 $). The company expects to produce 50 to 100 Eclipse 550s per year once production resumes in 2013.
October 10, 2011 - 7:32pm
After rising from the ashes of bankruptcy in 2009 and following substantial minority investment by Sikorsky late last year, Eclipse Aerospace announced at NBAA 2011 today that it will restart production of the Eclipse very light jet in 2013.
August 25, 2011 - 7:15am
Eclipse Aerospace said the FAA has approved Eclipse 500s to return to a maximum certified ceiling of 41,000 feet, effective immediately upon the installation of the recently recertified combustion liners.
