Even as Eclipse Aviation increases production of the Eclipse 500 and retrofits that very light jet fleet to full operational capability, officials are considering producing a single-engined jet that could give the young manufacturer a family of aircraft.
What’s now called the Eclipse Concept Jet was developed by Swift Engineering of San Clemente, California over six months and first appeared in late July. The V-tailed ECJ reached speeds up to 250kt (460km/h) with its single Pratt & Whitney Canada PW615F turbofan, and altitudes up to 25,000ft (7,620m) in its first test flights.
INTEGRATED SYSTEM
The avionics of that prototype is the same Avio NG integrated system that Eclipse will retrofit into delivered Eclipse 500s starting in December, and will install in its latest aircraft from November. Retrofits are scheduled to finish by mid- 2008, with certification of the Avio NG system expected by late October.
Chief executive Vern Raburn acknowledges mistakes in the rush to launch. He says Avio NG retrofits should be complete by the end of the month, and the newest aircraft will have those glass cockpits by late October.
“It’s another one of those things that all the experts said couldn’t be done in two years, so I think a 30-day slip against a twoyear projection is not too bad,” he says. The system offers total aircraft integration, including control of flight control trims, autopilot, electrical power distribution, FADEC, air data, AHRS, landing gear and flap actuation. Eclipse announced its next-generation weather radar system at AirVenture in Oshkosh alongside the ECJ.
Designed by Eclipse Aviation, the system will be manufactured by Japan Radio, which will also supply the radar components. As service technicians move to bring modern radar and situational awareness to the most-affordable VLJ in the world, others at Eclipse are pushing for certification into known icing conditions by the end of the year.
Freezing in a handful of pitot static systems was isolated and retrofit kits have addressed a Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive that prevented Eclipse pilots from filing or flying instrument flight plans. New front windscreens are waiting for owners after every 100 flights, replacing them with windscreens that will last up to 1,500 flights. “There are no operational restrictions, there is an inspection restriction,” explains Raburn.
“We’re not going to go out and do a fleet-wide retrofit. We’ll start retrofitting the fleet on a timeout basis.” Side windows also had fatigue problems, and the replacements will last up to 600 flights rather than 200. All that work leaves Raburn glad he farmed out design of the single-engine jet.
“Doing it outside made all the sense in the world,” he says. “Our engineering organization is really devoting a lot of resources to manufacturing support right now as we’re ramping up production, so we’re really not tuned to being a prototype or a proof of- concept shop.” Production is picking up thanks to a focused reorganization at their Albuquerque facility, Raburn says.
“Probably the biggest one we just finished: a fundamental re-layout of our primary assembly building, which has significantly improved our throughput. The layout we started with was really inadequate and inefficient.” Fabrication is still handled out-of-house, he adds. “We’re a designer and a systems integrator and an assembler.” Their line now holds 70 aircraft moving through construction, but Eclipse does not release delivery statistics.
“There are no silver bullets. You can’t just go from one airplane a week to one an hour.” Workers are getting into their groove, he says, and there are more of them to get more done more quickly. The total number of employees is now above 1,400, up from 1,000 in January and 700 last October. They’re working through more than 2,600 total orders – a backlog that totals more than $4 billion with escalation.
Customers ordering an Eclipse 500 now will wait until the third quarter of 2009 to receive their jet. By then, production will soar, Raburn predicts. And although his company has suffered numerous delays, production is already historic, he says. “We will deliver more aircraft this year than any other new company has ever done in the history of aviation. It’s not as much as I wanted to. I’m a very impatient son of a bitch and I’m rarely satisfied.”
Raburn hears the critics of Eclipse and their predictions of failure, and he takes a defiant stance. “When are they going to have the guts to stand up and say they were wrong? I’m willing to take bets on that.”
PREDICTIONS
His predictions and his jet have often found an audience in mainstream press, which Raburn does not credit to a conscious public relations campaign. “I think one of the reasons we get so much press it because the story’s such a strong story and such an appealing story. We also have a strong propensity, driven by me, to be very open with the press.”
According to the 2008 Flight Pocket Guide to Business Aircraft, The Eclipse 500 very light jet climbs at 3,424ft/m (19.85m/s) to a maximum altitude of 41,000ft. Double Prattt & Whitney Canada PW610F turbofans push the six-seat jet to a maximum cruise speed of 370kt. Its maximum range is 1,300nm (2,400km) when carrying a 45min reserve and four occupants – a 200lb (90kg) pilot and three 170lb passengers.
Source: Flight Daily News
