Eclipse 500

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eclipse 500

An Eclipse 500 takes off during flight test program at Mojave Airport. Note the straight wing design with small wingtip fuel tanks>
Type Very light jet
National origin United States
Manufacturer Eclipse Aviation
Maiden flight August 26, 2002
Introduction December 31, 2006
Status In production
Primary user DayJet
Produced 2001-
Number built 51+
Unit cost USD$2.15M[1]
Developed from Williams V-Jet II

The Eclipse 500 is a small six-seat business jet aircraft manufactured by Eclipse Aviation. It is the second of a new class of business jets called Very Light Jets (VLJ), following the delivery of the first VLJ, the Cessna Citation Mustang in late 2006.[2] The aircraft is powered by two lightweight Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F turbofan engines in tail-mounted nacelles.

Contents

[edit] Design and development

The production Eclipse 500 is the product of a conceptual design evolution which began with the Williams V-Jet II, which was designed and built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites in 1997 for Williams International to be used as a testbed and demonstrator for their new FJX-2 turbofan engine. The aircraft and engine debuted at the 1997 Oshkosh Airshow.

The V-Jet II was an all-composite structure with a forward-swept wing, a V-tail, each fin of which was mounted on the nacelle of one of the two engines. Williams had not intended to produce the aircraft, but it attracted a lot of attention, and Eclipse Aviation was founded in 1998 to further develop and produce the aircraft.

The prototype and only V-Jet II aircraft was obtained by Eclipse Aviation along with the program, and was donated to the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 2001.

[edit] Adaptation of V-Jet II design

Eclipse 500 flight test aircraft at Mojave
Eclipse 500 flight test aircraft at Mojave
Flight test aircraft at Mojave
Flight test aircraft at Mojave
Parked at Colorado Springs Airport
Parked at Colorado Springs Airport

Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn was one of the first business executives at Microsoft. Subsequently, Bill Gates became a major stake-holder in the Eclipse project. The VLJ concept has been pursued by a number of manufacturers, and because the V-Jet II had been designed around one of the primary VLJ engines, Eclipse believed it was an ideal design to refine and market.

The airframe was significantly redesigned as an all-metal structure with a T-tail and straight wings. The main cabin shape is essentially all that was retained from the V-Jet II. It was recognized that for an aluminum structure to be cost effective, new manufacturing techniques would have to be developed. One of the primary processes used was friction stir welding, in which the skin and underlying aluminum structure are welded together rather than riveted, as traditional for aluminum aircraft. Anti-corrosion bonding techniques were also developed.[3]

Besides materials processes, the general process of building the airframe was redesigned, with techniques taken from the automotive industry. Traditionally, aircraft structure is mounted in a jig, and the skin is riveted on to the outside of it. For the Eclipse 500, lessons were taken from composite airframe manufacturing, and the aluminum skin is first laid in a mold, and then the structure is built into it. The result is much more precise control of the aircraft's final shape, resulting in a cabin that is more robust and can be pressurized to a higher differential. In addition, the manufacturing techniques are designed so that one crew can assemble an airframe in a single shift. The complete interior is designed to be installed on a moving assembly line in 45 minutes.

Originally Eclipse selected a pair of Williams International EJ-2 engines (a production variant of the FJ22/FJX-2) for the Eclipse 500, but as the aircraft's weight increased, performance was not satisfactory. Pratt & Whitney Canada agreed to participate in the project, and modified the design of their PW615 engine, designating it the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F. The prototype Eclipse 500 first flew with the Williams engines in 2002. [4] The redesign to incorporate the new engines resulted in a significant delay to the development program. The first flight of the Eclipse 500 with the new engines occurred on December 31, 2004. [5]

An Eclipse press release says that its aircraft is "the quietest jet aircraft" and that it is "quieter than virtually all multi engine turboprop and piston aircraft".[6]

[edit] Instrument Panel

The Eclipse 500 cockpit has glass cockpit technology and an integrated avionics package. Problems with the original configuration have involved a re-design of the system. The first aircraft have the original system called Avio until the new Avio NG system is certified. The new avionics package was certified in December 2007 and older aircraft will be retrofited and all should be to the same standard by the end of 2008.[7]

[edit] Certification

[edit] USA

The Eclipse 500 received provisional type certification from the FAA on July 27, 2006, shortly after the aircraft's PW610F engine was certified by the Canadian authorities. FAA Administrator Marion Blakey presented Raburn with the provisional certificate in a special ceremony at the 2006 Oshkosh Airshow.

Full certification was not granted at that time because the composite wing tip fuel tanks did not meet FAA lightning strike criteria. As a result, Eclipse started testing an improved wingtip fuel tank made from aluminium. Eclipse also started ramping up production of the 500, so aircraft could be released to customers once full certification was achieved.

Full type certification was eventually achieved on 30 September 2006. At that point, in addition to the five flying prototypes, 23 aircraft were in production and two had already been completed. Full certification allows the 500 to be flown using IFR (instrument flight rules) with a single pilot throughout its operating envelope. Deliveries to customers can now start. However, some avionics functionality (e.g. GPS navigation, weather radar, etc) will not be available until some 6-12 months after the initial deliveries and will have to be retro-fitted into in-service aircraft.

The Eclipse 500 still has not obtained certification from the FAA to fly into "known icing conditions", which is a contractually required certification. The icing certification is now being delayed until June 2008.[8]

Eclipse has now received its FAA production certificate. [9] Eclipse did not receive its production certificate as expected in Q4 of 2006. This caused a delay in the delivery of its first plane. [10] Until the production certificate is granted, each airplane that rolls off the line must be individually inspected and certified airworthy by the FAA. On March 1, 2007, the Aero-News Network reprinted a letter that CEO Vern Raburn sent to Eclipse's potential customers notifying them that his company was continuing to experience production schedule delays. He provided a list of eight reasons for the delays. He also announced, "While it is impossible to predict the exact timing for the receipt of our Production Certificate (PC), we will keep you informed of our progress."[11]

[edit] Europe

The Eclipse 500 is not currently certified in Europe and the company has not indicated a timeline for accomplishing that.[12]

Despite the fact that certification standards between the USA and Europe are harmonized and virtually identical, the European certification authority, European Aviation Safety Agency, has some concerns that must be addressed prior to European certification.[12] These include:

  • Certification for flight into known icing[12]
  • The incomplete status of the Avio NG integrated flight management system[12]
  • Issues with the autopilot and autothrottles[12]
  • The slow rate of emergency descent from its 41,000ft ceiling following sudden decompression[12][13]

The aircraft may also require ACAS, something the company has indicated is not practical, due to a lack of antennae location.[13]

European analysts writing in Flight Global have indicated that it may be necessary for Eclipse to build a separate version of the aircraft to meet European certification requirements, something the company has indicated it is not planning to do.[13]

[edit] Modifications

In early December 2006 and in March 2007, Eclipse announced, in letters to customers a number of changes to the initial specifications, including:

  1. New fairings for the landing gear, wheel covers, and tail
  2. Control surface hinge covers
  3. Extended rudder and elevator, to eliminate gurney flaps
  4. Improved lower engine nacelle panel aerodynamics
  5. Extended wingtip fuel tanks (+12 US gal. on each side)
  6. Changes to engine FADEC software, to increase cruise thrust above 25000ft altitude
  7. Overall weight increase of 79 lbs with no change to full fuel payload or max useful load.

Together, these measures are expected to increase the cruise speed from 360 to 370kts TAS and increase NBAA IFR range from 1055 to 1125nm. All aircraft, including the already delivered initial deliveries, will be upgraded to this new standard.[14]

[edit] Production and marketing

From the beginning, the aircraft was intended to bring a new economy to small jet aircraft, and both cost of acquisition and ongoing operational costs were considered in the design of the plane. Eclipse is attempting to market the aircraft to a segment of general aviation that has not had a jet participating in the market, so it is directly competing with high-end piston and turboprop aircraft. Thus, Eclipse's marketing efforts are focusing on the plane's very low service costs and comprehensive maintenance and support program for customers. Being able to land at over 10,000 airports in the United States, Eclipse and other VLJ manufacturers hope that this would proliferate an air taxi role for their aircraft.

Eclipse is reporting 2,700 total orders and options to order its Eclipse 500. The company initially advised customers and investors that they hoped to deliver 10 aircraft by the end of 2006[15], but as of March 2, 2006, Eclipse was still unable to obtain a production certificate, nor were they able to deliver even their second aircraft. The Eclipse has an initial cost of 1.52 million USD for those that make a deposit before August 31, 2007. Starting September 1, 2007, Eclipse has announced a 5% price increase to 1.595 million USD.[16] For comparison, the Cessna Citation Mustang, another VLJ, cost around 2.62 million USD at launch in 2006.

Eclipse will offer the Jet Complete program, guaranteeing private owners a maintenance cost of $209 per flight hour for three years (if the aircraft is operated between 300 and 3,000 hours during that period). A similar Jet Complete Business program will cover charter operators.

On 30 May 2008 Eclipse announced that the price of the EA 500 was being increased to USD$2.15M. The company indicted that lower than projected production volume had meant that expected efficiencies had not been realized, resulting in higher production costs.[1]

[edit] DayJet

DayJet is Eclipse's largest customer, with 1400 aircraft on order, for use in the air taxi role.[17] Aviation analysts remain somewhat doubtful whether the company's aggressive sales and production targets will be feasible.[18]

On 6 May 2008 DayJet announced that it is scaling back its operations, laying off 100-160 employees in all segments of the company and selling or leasing out 16 of its current fleet of 28 Eclipse 500s. DayJet founder and CEO Ed Iacobucci indicated that the company needs USD$40M to reach profitability, but that the current economic climate has not permitted the company to raise that amount. Iacobucci has stated that the company has proven that the operational concept is sound, but that the current fleet of 28 Eclipse 500s needs to be quickly expanded to 50 aircraft to attain profitability.[17][19]

With 1400 Eclipse 500s on order out of a current order book of about 2500 aircraft DayJet represents 58% of all Eclipses ordered.[17][19]

[edit] Deliveries

Although Raburn told customers in late November of 2006 that he anticipated delivering 10 aircraft before the end of the year, his company was only able to get a single copy of its jet delivered on December 31, 2006.[15] The official delivery ceremony occurred on January 4, 2007, when the keys were handed over to its co-owners, David Crowe, an owner-pilot and the shared-jet cooperative group, Jet Alliance.[20]

On April 19, 2007, it was reported that Eclipse had delivered a total of six Eclipse 500 aircraft, including three to DayJet.[21]

Eclipse has announced previously that it intends to build 4 aircraft per day in 2008. Eclipse revised those plans in a June 2007 letter to Eclipse depositors stating that Eclipse would be building 1 aircraft per day in August 2007, 2 aircraft per day in April 2008 and 3 aircraft per day in December 2008. As of September 24, 2007 according to the FAA registry database, Eclipse had delivered a total of 44 aircraft (12 of those aircraft were delivered to DayJet) with 6 delivered in August and 11 delivered in September.

[edit] Specifications

Original cockpit layout of prototype aircraft
Original cockpit layout of prototype aircraft
Engine inlet, with inset to show relative size of this small turbofan engine
Engine inlet, with inset to show relative size of this small turbofan engine

Data from Eclipse Aviation[22]

General characteristics

  • Crew: one or two pilots
  • Capacity: 4 to 5 passengers
  • Length: 33 ft 1 in (10.1 m)
  • Wingspan: 37 ft 3 in (11.4 m)
  • Height: 11 ft 0 in (3.4 m)
  • Empty weight: 3,550 lb (1,610 kg)
  • Loaded weight: 5,520 lb (2,504 kg)
  • Useful load: 2,400 lb (1,089 kg)
  • Max takeoff weight: 5,950 lb (2,699 kg)
  • Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F turbofan engines, 900 lbf (4 kN flat-rated to > ISA+10C) each

Performance

  • Takeoff distance: 2,155 ft (657 m)
  • Landing distance: 2,040 ft (622 m)

Avionics

  • Avio Next Generation (aka Avio NG)
  • Displays: Two 768 x 1024 resolution PFD displays and One 1440 x 900 resolution MFD display

[edit] See also

Related development

Comparable aircraft



[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Niles, Russ (May 2008). Eclipse Goes Ahead With Single, Hikes Price Of Twin. Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
  2. ^ Cessna Beats Out Eclipse In First VLJ delivery. AVWeb (2006-11-23). Retrieved on 2006-11-29.
  3. ^ "An Inside Look at Eclipse" Eclipse Aviation press release (last accessed November 29, 2006)
  4. ^ Eclipse 500 Jet Achieves First Flight (2002-08-26). Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
  5. ^ Eclipse Aviation Completes Two Successful Flights of First Eclipse 500 Certification Flight Test Aircraft (2004-12-31). Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
  6. ^ Eclipse Press release (last accessed April 10, 2007)
  7. ^ Eclipse certificates new avionics, secures new financing (December 21, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-22.
  8. ^ Eclipse News (last accessed 3/18/2008)
  9. ^ Eclipse Aviation Receives Production Certificate (2007-04-26). Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
  10. ^ Glenn Pew Eclipse Addresses Delays And Performance Guarantees AVWeb December 6, 2006
  11. ^ Vern Raburn Eclipse 500 Production Schedule Slips Due To Several Issues Aero-News Network, March 2, 2007
  12. ^ a b c d e f Niles, Russ (May 2008). Eclipse European Certification Question. Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
  13. ^ a b c Reed Business Information (May 2008). EBACE 2008: EASA could force major changes to Eclipse VLJ. Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
  14. ^ Vern Raburn, Letter to Eclipse Customers, March 26, 2007, Reprinted by AVWeb
  15. ^ a b Raburn, Vern. "Eclipse Aviation Customer/Investor Update 11-27-06", AVweb, 2006-11-27. Retrieved on 2006-11-29. 
  16. ^ New Mexico Business Weekly, Eclipse raises jet's price, reveals new products, July 25, 2007
  17. ^ a b c Niles, Russ (May 2008). DayJet Announces Layoffs. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
  18. ^ Bill Cox VLJs Turn Short Final Pilot Journal, Sept/Oct 2005 issue. (last accessed Nov. 29, 2006)
  19. ^ a b Niles, Russ (May 2008). DayJet Cuts Jets And Staff. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
  20. ^ "Company second in U.S to deliver light jets", Associated Press, 2007-01-05. Retrieved on 2007-01-16. 
  21. ^ Eclipse 500 makes European debut at Aero 2007. Flightglobal.com.
  22. ^ Eclipse Aviation - Specifications. Retrieved on 2006-11-29.


[edit] External links

v • d • e
Lists relating to aviation
General
Military
Accidents/incidents
Records