Eclipse 500 first
certified VLJ
By Randy Dufault
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The first customer
Eclipse 500 shows off its new paint to the throngs at EAA
AirVenture Oshkosh 2006 shortly after the FAA awarded the
company provisional approval for the world’s first very light
jet. Photo by Dave Higdon |
"What I have in my
hand is probably the most significant piece of paper in America today, a
piece of paper that will truly change the face of aviation," said
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, just before handing the provisional
Type Certificate for the Eclipse 500 VLJ, to Vern Raburn, Eclipse
Aviation’s president and CEO.
Blakey made the
presentation at 1:15 p.m. Thursday during a press conference at the
Eclipse Pavilion. Acting Secretary of Transportation Maria Cino and EAA
President Tom Poberezny also attended the presentation.
"This is a special
day for Eclipse and a special day for EAA," Poberezny said in his
comments. "We appreciate the role we’ve played in your
accomplishment."
Over the seven-year
period since the Eclipse 500 project formally began, AirVenture has
often been a platform for announcements and news about the program.
With a provisional Type
Certificate, the airplane must be operated under a number of
restrictions until remaining tests are completed. Most of those
restrictions involve lack of final FAA approval of the software behind
many of the Eclipse 500’s systems.
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VLJ Day! With
nearly 200 of his employees applauding, Eclipse Chairman Vern
Raburn displays the provisional Type Certificate the FAA awarded
to the Eclipse 500 Thursday at AirVenture. Albuquerque-based
Eclipse chartered a Boeing 727 to bring more than 170 employees
to Oshkosh. Photo by Dave Higdon |
An initial Type
Certificate (TC) is expected by August 30th. That TC is expected to
allow day or night operation, VFR and IFR operation, operation under
Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (RVSM), and single-pilot operation.
Following the formal
presentation, Raburn, Cino, Blakey, and Poberezny moved to a platform
outside the pavilion. In front of the platform were 170 Eclipse
employees, all wearing
t-shirts proclaiming the certification.
The employees, some of whom had been with
the program since its
inception, flew to
AirVenture this morning from Albuquerque, New Mexico, on a chartered
Boeing 727. They joined the 40 Eclipse staff already here to manage the
company’s AirVenture pavilion.
"This certificate is
not mine, it belongs to all of us," Raburn said to his staff.
"The efforts, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the long hours…I
can never thank you enough for everything that you’ve done."
According to Raburn, the
entire 812-member staff of Eclipse is taking next week off. "They’ve
earned it," he said. "And I’m going fishing."
With at least a
provisional certificate in hand, Eclipse is free to begin deliveries of
the jet to the reported 2,500 customers who have made non-refundable
deposits. Production serial number one rolled off the production line
July 23rd and was delivered here at AirVenture. Production serial number
two was completed late Wednesday and departed Eclipse’s Albuquerque
plant Thursday morning for its delivery at AirVenture.
The company is also in
the final stages of constructing a 250,000 square foot production
facility. When complete, the plant should be capable of producing up to
four airplanes a day.
A number of pieces of
functionality in the airplane remains to be completed. A key target for
completion is the integrated avionics system.
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The first of the
first...The first production Eclipse 500 draws a crowd of admirers
just minutes before Eclipse Aviation received the provisional Type
Certificate that made the aircraft the world’s first very light
jet. Photo by Dave Higdon |
According to Raburn, all
the hardware is installed in the plane now, but several pieces of
software, some from Eclipse and some from other suppliers, are yet to be
certified. A number of functions are expected to be delivered in the
next 90 days, with the remaining pieces delivered during the coming 12
months.
Certification for flight
into known icing conditions remains to be completed as well.
A number of airframe and
performance improvements are planned for the Eclipse 500. Over the next
six months, the plane’s wingtip-mounted fuel tanks will be increased
in capacity from seven to 19.5 gallons and the rear end of the fuselage
will be reconfigured. The changes, which will be retrofitted to early
customer airplanes, are expected to increase the plane’s cruising
speed from 360 to 370 knots, and to increase its range nearly 100 miles.
By this time next year
Eclipse expects to have several service centers in operation. They are
targeting having a service center within a one-hour flight for every 500
owners.
Training programs, both
for maintenance technicians and pilots, are underway.
Eclipse has a number of aircraft here at
AirVenture. Their pavilion is located on the south side of AeroShell
Square.
